Cervical pedicle screw fixation with the Tianji orthopedic surgical robot.

Objective: To compare the accuracy and safety of implanting cervical pedicle screws (CPS) between orthopedic surgical robot-assisted technique and traditional fluoroscopy-assisted free-hand technique.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 95 patients treated with posterior cervical spinal surgery using either Tianji orthopedic surgical robot-assisted or traditional fluoroscopy-assisted free-hand pedicle screw implantation technology from March 2021 to March 2024, including 44 cases in the orthopedic surgical robot group and 51 cases in the traditional fluoroscopy group.

Results: Compared with the traditional fluoroscopy group, the orthopedic surgical robot group had better accuracy in screw implantation that is, a higher acceptable rate of screws (p = 0.0083). In addition, compared with the traditional fluoroscopy group, postoperative hospital stay was shorter in the orthopedic surgical robot group (p = 0.0447), but operation duration was longer (p = 0.0038). There was no significant difference in intraoperative blood loss between groups (p = 0.0872). There were 2 cases of cerebrospinal fluid leakage and 1 case of decreased left handgrip strength in the traditional fluoroscopy group, while only 1 case of cerebrospinal fluid leakage occurred in the orthopedic surgical robot group.

Conclusions: In this retrospective study, the accuracy of spine surgery with CPS implantation assisted by orthopedic surgical robot is often superior to that of spine surgery using traditional fluoroscopy-guided CPS implantation technique, while maintaining comparable safety.