At Clinch Valley Health, we are always seeking new ways we can advance our mission of Making Communities Healthier and continue to enhance the care we are able to provide our patients. Last spring, we invested in a new robotic-assisted surgery system to add to our quality surgical offerings. Robotic-assisted surgery is a powerful tool that brings with it tremendous benefits for our patients undergoing knee replacements.

Robotic-assisted surgery utilizes a less invasive, muscle-sparing incision and provides precise intra-operative assessment of knee alignment and ligament function. This can improve knee joint stability and lessen soft tissue dissection, post-operative pain for patients and can result in quicker recovery, shorter hospital stays and reduced complications from blood loss and infection.

The robot, located tableside in our operating room, allows the orthopedic surgeon's hand movements to be scaled, filtered, and translated into precise placement of instruments at the surgical site. The robot allows the surgeon to optimize placement of artificial implants by evaluating the final knee alignment and ligament tension prior to committing to a certain bone resection. In essence recuts and outliers caused by imprecise bone cuts are eliminated by the use of this robotic technology.

The magnified, high-resolution, three-dimensional view the surgeon experiences enables him to perform precise and complex surgery through smaller surgical incisions. The surgeon is 100% in control of the robotic system. This technology is part of an ever-growing strategy to add robotics options to the surgical care we provide.

Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Walid Azzo has performed more than 65% of total knee replacements using Clinch Valley’s surgical robot. Dr. Azzo said, “Robotic surgery makes difficult surgeries easier with better functional outcomes. Patients can experience many benefits from robotic surgeries, including smaller incisions, better outcomes and faster recovery times. This means there’s an increased possibility we can get the patient back to their normal activities much more quickly.”