UW Medicine using newest robotics tech in spinal surgery

SEATTLE — UW Medicine is putting the newest robotics technology to work in delicate surgeries.

On Monday, UW Medicine announced that one of its own doctors is taking advantage of the new technology when performing surgery.

Dr. Richard Bransford, an orthopedic surgeon at UW Medicine, is using the robotic-assisted device to perform spinal and back procedures.

“We’ve been using navigation and spine surgery for a while, but what the robot allows us to do is to very precisely find that angle and navigate that angle,” Bransford said. “The robot arm can kind of tell us where to place that screw, which the study suggests is a more accurate, and therefore more effective, tool.”

In his most recent surgery, Bransford used the technology on a patient being treated for degenerative disc disease.

“With the navigation attached to it, you can use percutaneous (minor) incisions. So, we don’t have to use the big wide-open exposure (to spinal structures),” Bransford added.

The technology also reduces tissue trauma and pain a patient may experience while improving the time it takes to recover.

UW Medicine will explore how the technology can be used in other areas of medicine and train others to use it.

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