Bayhealth Hospital in Dover recently purchased a robotic navigation system called the ExcelsiusGPS, that improves safety and accuracy for implanting screws in spine surgeries.
The robot significantly cuts the time its takes to implant screws and eliminates the need for multiple x-rays, which lessens radiation exposure for the patient and operating room staff.
The robot also leaves smaller incisions with less scarring and patients treated with it require shorter hospital stays and see faster recovery times.
The first BayHealth neurosurgeon to complete a surgery using the new robot was Dr. Amit Goyal. He says many spinal surgery risks are eliminated using the robot.
“What the robot allows us to do, is that instead of putting a screw in relatively blindly, it gives us essentially like a GPS navigation for the patient’s body, and so we can put the screw in with absolute precision, to ensure that it goes exactly where it’s supposed to,” said Goyal.
Dr. Goyal notes technology like this is typically late to arrive in southern-central Delaware, but the area now has a resource even some major cities nationwide cannot provide patients. Now patients here won’t have to travel long distances for it.
“This is kind of the most cutting edge you can actually have when it comes to spinal-implantation surgery," he said. "So I’m excited that a population that typically would not have these types of resources available to them now does.”
The robot helps with a range of surgeries, such as ones to treat degenerative or arthritic spine conditions and patients with spine trauma.
