First-of-its-kind medical robot is helping doctors perform spinal surgeries in Delaware

A first-of-its-kind medical robot is helping doctors perform spinal surgeries in Delaware. (KYW via CNN Newsource)

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) - A first-of-its-kind medical robot is helping doctors at Nemours Children’s Hospital perform spinal surgeries.

Doctors at Nemours said this robot is making surgery faster and more precise, and it means a quicker and easier recovery for patients.

Rhiannon Groff, 16, is recovering from a new kind of spine surgery performed by Dr. Brett Shannon at Nemours.

The 11th grader has scoliosis, a curvature of the spine.

“I would have a lot of soreness and aching, especially in my lower back,” she said.

To relieve the pain and straighten her back, surgeons place rods like these that are held in place with a series of screws.

“It’s important to make sure that they’re placed exactly in the bone rather than outside into the lung or to the blood vessels or to the nerve roots,” said Shannon.

Doctors said the robot makes spine surgery faster and more accurate. Nemours is the first facility on the East Coast to have this new spinal robot.

“This elevates us to another generation of being able to see what is unseen beneath the surface and understand the three-dimensional geometry much better,” said Dr. Suken Shah of Nemours.

The robot is equipped with imaging to pinpoint the location of the screws. It can also assist in getting them precisely inserted, not touching nearby vital structures, just millimeters away.

Groff said there’s no more pain two months after the surgery.

“When I first heard that it was gonna be assisted by a robot, I honestly thought it was really cool,” she said. “And I’m so glad that it’s helping people like me and people with more serious conditions recover and get better.”

Groff is already stretching, ready to head back to running track pain-free.

The team at Nemours said they’re using the new robot to assist in a variety of spinal surgeries.

By Stephanie Stahl, Nate Sylves.