Spine Surgery Technology

In early 2020, LCRH successfully added a robotic guidance platform to its regional spinal surgery offerings.  The platform combines pre-operative planning tools, analytics, and 3D navigation, giving Lake Cumberland neurosurgeons greater accuracy during spinal surgeries. Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital is the only hospital in the region and just the third in the entire state to offer this technology.

Before entering the operating room, surgeons use the 3D planning functionality to plan an optimal surgery in a CT-based 3D simulation of the patient’s spine.  Minimally invasive procedures with their smaller incisions can sometimes prove challenging to surgeons due to the limited view of a patient’s anatomy – this robotic technology helps to overcome this challenge by offering a 3D surgical plan that gives the surgeon information and visualization before the surgery starts.

This technology includes a camera arm and mechanical arms that guide the pre-planned trajectory and with surgical instruments attached to them, surgeons control the arm and the robot to perform the surgery with more accuracy and less invasiveness. Using these robotic tools we can perform delicate and complex procedures that may have been difficult or impossible with other methods.

By utilizing this new platform, Lake Cumberland can continue to raise the bar on implant accuracy and precision during placement of bone screws. In addition to offering more minimally invasive surgery procedures with tiny incisions, these tools allow decreased chances of surgical site infections, offering less pain and blood loss for patients, and quicker recovery times.