A new study from researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery’s Lerner Children’s Pavilion describes a mentorship model for robotic-assisted navigation in pediatric spinal fusion surgery.
Noting that robotic-assisted navigation systems improve pedicle screw placement accuracy while acknowledging a significant learning curve, the team implemented a structured mentorship model that paired an early-career attending spine surgeon as mentee with an experienced attending spine surgeon as mentor. The study, published in Journal of Robotic Surgery, evaluates the feasibility and safety of this model.
The retrospective review focuses on 55 robot-assisted posterior spinal fusion procedures performed over 38 months on patients 21 years old and younger with idiopathic scoliosis. Operative outcomes were then compared between 39 mentor-led and 16 mentee-led cases with a minimum of 90-day follow-up.
The review found no differences in total procedure time, the number of robotically-placed screws per case, robotically planned screws converted to freehand per case, abandoned robotic screws per case, number of breaches per case, percentage of patients with intraoperative neuromonitoring changes. Additionally, there were zero readmissions or surgical site infections across the board.
“These findings suggest that a structured mentorship model is a feasible approach for integration of robotic-assisted navigation into a new attending’s practice while maintaining acceptable safety and efficiency,” the researchers write.
Read the full study (login required) here.
