For better hip replacement results, surgeon's best friend may be a robot

"FRUSTRATION" with the standard procedure has led to the development of a new technique for total hip replacement. Instead of the mallet-and-broach approach to preparing sites for cementless joint implantation, two clinicians working with computers have devised what they believe is a better way. Howard A. (Hap) Paul, DVM, University of California (UC), Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine, and William Bargar, MD, UC Davis, School of Medicine and Sutter General Hospital, Sacramento, came up with Robodoc. This surgical robot, an industrial automaton that has been uniquely fitted for its specialjob of milling out the femoral cavity, is the product of Integrated Surgical Systems (ISS) Inc, the company the two researchers have started in Sacramento. Working from input data supplied by another ISS product, the presurgical planning system called Orthodoc, the surgeon-guided robot has produced cavities in cadaver bone with a dimensional accuracy of 0.1mm—up to 40 times more accurate than