NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Cutting-edge technology offered at Riverside Regional Medical Center is a game changer for surgeons performing serious and complicated procedures on the spine.
“It’s an incremental step forward, but it’s definitely something that’s relatively new to spinal surgery,” said Riverside neurosurgeon Jackson Salvant, M.D.
The device is known as the Mazor X.
Dr. Salvant said Riverside Health is the only health system in Hampton Roads using the technology. He began offering Medtronic’s Mazor X Stealth Edition to patents last month.
“People who have lower back pain, either from degeneration of the joints and discs, neck pain from the same conditions, also people who have spinal injuries, or have tumors that affect the spine, all of those conditions would lend themselves very well to utilizing this technique,” Salvant said.
The robotic arm guides surgeons in the OR during spinal implant procedures. According to Dr. Salvant, the Mazor X has up to a 99% accuracy rate.
“Definitely a jump forward as far accuracy and safety for patients,” he said.
Surgeries with the state-of-the-art robot are less invasive, allowing doctors to make smaller and more precise incisions. Using the unique device could offer a big benefit to patients post-operation.
“It can allow them to heal more quickly,” Salvant said. “It can minimize the pain and the disruption of the tissue around the spine during the surgery, and it can result in a shorter hospital stay for some of these patients.”
