China-made robot does first knee replacement operation

A China independently developed robot has successfully carried out a knee replacement surgery, the first commercial use of a China-made robot for human surgery.

Under the control of orthopedic surgeons, the robot performed the joint replacement on a 73-year-old patient at the West China Hospital of Sichuan University.

Zhou Zongke, professor of orthopedics at the hospital, said the patient, suffering from knee pain for more than ten years, had been diagnosed with terminal knee-joint osteoarthritis.

Zhou said they input the patient's CT scan data into a computer for modeling and rehearsed the surgery procedures on a computer before the robot-assisted operation.

"The advantage of robot-assisted surgery is that it is intelligent and accurate with high precision in the exact amount, angle, and thickness in cutting," he said.

Knee joint pain is common among the elderly, especially osteoarthritis patients. The robot can assist surgeons in human surgeries according to the various conditions of each patient.