- February 07, 2018
In summary, Mako robot is a sophisticated tool for doing knee replacements and improves precision and accuracy for the procedure. And we found that it improves short term outcomes and then longer-term outcomes in the future as the data is collected. Early on we found that with the patients that have had this procedure are walking longer distances post-op day one, post-op day two and we found that their recovery is a bit accelerated compared to the standard way of doing this procedure. Now this is early data that we’ve collected and we continue to collect it, but it’s very promising results and a small group of patients that we’ve been following. And, and I think that the most important thing here is that you need an experienced surgeon to complete the procedure. I’ve done a lot of procedures standard with manual instrumentation and this took a while for me to kind of understand and I believe I’m still understanding the procedure. But there is a lot of data, a lot of information as we showed up on the screens previously to look at the different positioning of sizing, positioning of the implants. And I think that the key here is to have a surgeon doing the procedure that has good experience, does high volume, and really understands how to do the knee replacement. And I think that this is a tool to help get you to that point.
So the question that you have to ask is, when do I do, when am I supposed to do this? Am I ready for a knee replacement? When do I proceed if I waited long enough as if I had done all the things? Well, there’s a couple of questions that you ask yourself. You ask your physician, are you less active because of the knee pain? Does it prevent you from doing the things that you previously do three, six months ago, a year ago? Those your knee pain keep you from doing what you want to do, how far can you walk? Can you walk up and down steps? And these are questions that only you can answer yourself, we can help you with what are your symptoms. But it ultimately is a patient’s decision of when they want to do the procedure. And I think that there are three important things that need to be addressed.
Number one, do you medically need this procedure to be done? Are you indicated? You’ve tried anti-inflammatories, weight loss, physical therapy. Those things used to work in the past. Now they no longer work. Are your X rays? No cartilage left. There’s bone on bone arthritis. That would be yes. Okay, next one. Two. Do you have the financial means to do so? Can you take time off of work? Four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks? Do you have insurance? Are you able to go through all the costs? Medical care is very costly. Are you able to take the time and the resources to be able to do the procedure? And number three, which is probably the most important thing, is are you mentally prepared to undergo a surgical procedure that we do have a minimally invasive procedure. But a knee replacement is an invasive procedure. Are you ready to go through that? The recovery, the pain associated with, the time out of work to do this? And if the answers are all yes, all three questions, then I believe you proceed with a replacement. So I think those are the important things in decision making. So that is about everything. Thanks for tuning in today and have a good day.
