Drilling into cattle spines assisted by a spinal minimally invasive robot system

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Objective To assess the accuracy and safety of inserting K-wires by a spinal minimally invoive robot system into cattle spines. Methods With a program shown on the screen of a C-arm fluoroscopy system,194 nails were placed ino 17 cattle spines by a spinal minimal invasive robot system which had been developed jointly by Shenyang Institute of Autmation Chinese Academy of Sciences and our institute.Radiation frequency,radiation exposure time,operation time and deviation of drills were recorded and analyzed. Results The mean deviation in the lateral projections by the spinal minimally invasivc robot system was smaller than in the anteroposterior projections.In lateral projection,the deviations within 1 mm,2 mm and 3 mm accounted respectively for 91.6％,99.5％ and 100％.In anteroposterior projection.the deviations within 1 mm,2 mm and 3 mm accounted respecrvely for 71.1％,89.6％ and 94.8％.The mean drilling time,the mean radiation frequency and the mean radiation time per hole by the robot system were respectively 420 seconds (from 330 to 577 seconds),13 times (from 8 to 21 times) and 9 seconds (from 8 to19 seconds).There was a learning curve in mastering the system.Training for a period of time made the accuracy within 2 mm in both lateral and anteropsterior films 95.6％ of the deviations in lateral films and 92.1％ of the deviations in anteroposterior films were less than one mm. Conclusions Operators of the spinal minimally invasive robot system can avoid intraoperative X-ray radiation.The flexibility and accuracy of the system can completely satisfy the clinical needs of spinal surgeons,but there must be a learning curve. Key words: Surgery, computer-assisted; Robotics; Surreal procedures, minimally invasive