Learning curve of Tianji orthopaedic robot in assisting percutaneous kyphoplasty for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures / 中华创伤骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the learning curve of the Tianji orthopedic robot in assisting percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCF).Methods A retrospective study was conducted of the consecutive 44 OVCF patients (71 fractured vertebrae) who had been treated with PKP assisted by the Tianji orthopedic robot from May 2018 to March 2019 at Department of Ortbopedics,The First Hospital of China Medical University.They were 2 men and 42 women,aged from 55 to 89 years (average,68.6 years).Their operations were performed by the same surgical team.The patients were divided into 4 even groups (n =11) according to the date of operation.The accuracy of robot-assisted puncture,total operation time,robot operation time,PKP operation time and complications were statistically analyzed and compared between the 4 groups.Natural logarithm regression analysis of total operation time,robot operation time and PKP operation time was conducted to determine the association between operation time and operation number [y =aln(x) + b,x indicating operation number and y operation time].Results The 4 groups were comparable due to insignificant differences in age,gender or operative segment between them (P ＞ 0.05).The total rate of accurate puncture was 95.8％ (68/71).The rates of accurate puncture were 92.9％ (13/14),94.4％ (17/18),94.7％ (18/19) and 100％ (20/20) for groups 1,2,3,and4,respectively,with no significant differences between groups (P ＞ 0.05).The total operation time for the 4 groups was respectively 56.6 ± 6.6 min,46.4 ± 8.5 min,40.2 ± 4.7 min and 40.4 ± 5.7 min and the robot operation time for the 4 groups was respectively 32.1 ±4.9 min,23.8 ±5.1 min,18.9 ±2.7 min and 19.6 ± 5.3 min,showing significant differences between the 4 groups (P ＞ 0.05) and a significant difference between groups 1 and 2 versus groups 3 and 4 (P ＞ 0.05) but no significant difference between group 3 and 4 (P ＞ 0.05).The natural logarithm regression analysis showed that the total operation time [y =-7.2861n(x) + 66.616,R2 =0.4889,P ＜ 0.001] and robot operation time [y =-5.6621n(x) +39.763,R2 =0.5196,P ＜ 0.001] decreased significantly with the increase of operation number but became stable in groups 3 and 4.There was no significant difference in PKP operation time among the 4 groups (P ＞ 0.05).The main intraoperative complication was leakage of bone cement in the anterior vertebral space and intervertebral space,with a total incidence of 8.5％ (6/71),showing no significant difference among the 4 groups (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions The puncture accuracy of the Tianji orthopedic robot in assisting PKP for OVCF may not change with the increased operation number.The total operation time and robotic operation time decrease with the increased operation number.The learning curve of the Tianji orthopedic robot becomes stable very fast,indicating the surgical technique is easy to learn.