The incidence of spinal surgery is sharply rising, with the global number of spinal operations surpassing 4.83 million cases each year1. This substantial increase in incidence is likely due to a multitude of factors but, most notably, can be attributed to both an ageing population and climbing rates of obesity worldwide. This increased demand for spinal surgeries is anticipated to pile additional stress on an already over-burdened healthcare system. Opportunities to advance and improve surgical techniques through shortening surgical case times, increasing the volume of cases that can be performed, improving patient outcomes, and reducing the number of required revision surgeries/readmissions have received significant attention. Spine surgeons are open to leverage technical improvements through the use of proven technologies such as navigation, intraoperative CT imaging, and surgical robots in the operating theatre2. The recent development and implementation of robot-assisted spine surgery has been proven to increase the accuracy of pedicle screw placement, increase patient safety, decrease the rate of complications, and decrease the amount of radiation exposure during the operation3.
This project aims to evaluate how the recent introduction of robot-assisted methods to spinal surgery cases has impacted patient outcomes and if they are similar or improved when compared to traditional free-hand open or minimally invasive techniques. The efficacy of robot-assisted spinal surgery will be analysed by retrospectively reviewing the clinical outcomes and overall economic burden amongst patient cohorts with opposing characteristics (males vs. females, younger vs. older, robotic vs. conventional methods, etc.) that presented to the National Spinal Injuries Unit, Mater Misericordiae University and Private Hospital, with a spinal fracture in need of fixation from the years 2016-2021. Through statistical analysis, this project hopes to identify patient-related clinical, radiographic, and demographic factors and use these to compare the efficacy of robotic versus non-robotic surgical techniques.
