Robot-assisted procedure at Baptist Health helps people walk pain-free

A minimally invasive, robot-assisted procedure is helping hundreds of people in the River City walk pain-free. The surgical procedure is providing an alternative to total knee replacement and is giving some patients with a painful degenerative joint condition some much needed relief.

After years of running half marathons and being an avid biker, Kevin Hastings told us he couldn’t do it anymore.

“It got to where not only could I not run, but I couldn’t walk. I say I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t walk without pain,” said Hastings.

Every step was unbearable. Hastings’ arthritis caused his left knee to be rubbing bone on bone.

“When there is pain all the time and it's constant, it really curtails your lifestyle and it kinda makes you a grumpy person,” said Hastings.

He tried injections into his knee joint, anti-inflammatory medications, but nothing helped. Until Dr. Steven Crenshaw performed a robotic-assisted minimally invasive partial knee resurfacing procedure in 2012.

“We’re exposing part of the knee that is worn and we replace it with artificial metal and plastic,” said Crenshaw.

Crenshaw told us the robot helps cut the bone so it can be removed and that allows him to put in the implant by hand. Surgeons use 3D imaging to precisely size and place the implant, customizing it to the patient's knee. During the procedure, a four- to six-inch incision is made over the knee and small incisions are made in the thighbone and shin.

After a 10-day hike in the Appalachian Trail in 2015, Hastings told us his other knee started giving him the same problems, so he had a second MAKOplasty surgery.

“It’s a wonderful thing because it’s one of those things where you just take for granted,” said Hastings.

Now, Hastings can walk, run or ride his bike and he’s 100% percent pain-free.

Crenshaw told Action News Jax this surgery requires a shorter period of hospitalization and the patients begin walking soon after the surgery. Baptist Health also recently added total hip replacement using MAKOplasty. This technology is the latest innovation in total hip replacement surgery performed using the RIO system, a highly advanced, surgeon-controlled robotic arm that enables the accurate alignment and positioning of implants. Orthopedic surgeons said the procedure results in a more natural feeling hip following surgery, and patients usually walk soon after surgery and return to normal activities within two weeks.

Cox Media Group