St Vincent’s Northside continues to blaze a trail for robotic surgery for joint replacement, leading the nation in performing the most robotic assisted Orthopaedic surgeries over a three-month period from August to October this year.

75-year old Brisbane grandfather and lifelong sportsman Russell Adams is reaping the benefits of the ‘rise of the robots’, as St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside establishes itself as a national leader in robotic surgery.

With two Stryker Mako robotic systems, St Vincent’s Northside was the Australian leader, with its expert team of surgeons performing the most robotic surgery cases of any hospital in Australia, with 204 cases in the three months from July to September.

Russell had his second hip replacement surgery in September (both were done at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside) and just nine weeks later is back “living his best life” doing regular bike rides with friends and enjoying beach walks - all pain free.

While age might have wearied Russell a bit, there’s no way he wanted to let an osteoarthritic hip or two (the second of which degenerated quickly this year) stop him from his lifelong active lifestyle. As a former long-distance runner, squash champion and bushwalker, being active – but pain-free - was his biggest priority.

Orthopaedic surgeon Dr David Fraser said the cause of arthritis in major joints such as hips and knees was multi-factorial – a combination of genetics, lifestyle factors, injury and general ‘wear and tear’ over years.

“The causes and factors are variable between patients and build up over many years, presenting in most people aged in their 50s, 60s and onwards,” said Dr Fraser.

“The decision to opt for a joint replacement should be reached in consultation with your doctor and a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon. Ultimately, if someone has optimised their pre-operative measures – if physiotherapy, exercise and medications are failing - then a hip or knee replacement is a reliable operation to improve their pain and function.

“The robotic assisted arthroplasty system builds on the foundation of what’s already an excellent operation in terms of improving a patient’s pain and function with a hip replacement and getting patients back to what they want to do.

“Robotic assisted surgery helps us plan and execute the operation with great accuracy and precision to get the implants where we want them and to optimise the patient’s recovery. Anecdotally patients seem to recover quicker – we try and get all the patients up and walking the day of surgery and back to doing their normal activities as soon as possible.”

Fellow St Vincent’s Northside orthopaedic surgeon Dr Richard Hanly said joint replacement surgery was reliable and reproducable – and robotic surgery had the benefit of allowing for variations in a patient’s anatomy and variations in risk with their anatomy to make sure that it produced the best outcome for the patient.

“It gives us the most precision in delivering customised positioning for joint replacement. A combination of 3D CT modelling and robotic planning software allows us to individualise the position of the prosthesis to match individual variations in anatomy,” said Dr Hanly.

“It means that what you plan pre-operatively is verified during the procedure to confirm the accuracy of implant position. The uptake of robotic surgery is continuing to gain pace.

“There are other areas that are anticipated over the coming years with shoulder surgery and spinal surgery applications in discussion and the possibility of robotic assisted ankle replacement in the future.”