Revolutionary robot-assisted knee surgery at Charles-Le Moyne Hospital

Tens of thousands of Quebercers are awaiting orthopedic surgeries, but Robert Graine is one less person on that list, after receiving cutting edge robot-assisted surgery at Charles-Le Moyne Hospital.

CityNews spoke with Graine moments before the surgery took place on his right knee. He’d waited 14 months–having been postponed due to a heart infection–a complication from his left knee replacement surgeries.

Graine described the knee pain as “awful” and said, “it’s reached point where I can’t do much with it.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Graine. “Yeah, it’s exciting. When they called me and told me that, I said, ‘I’ve seen videos in the past, down in Texas and Florida, they do big knee operations for the football players and now we have that same apparatus here. That’s exciting, right here in Longueuil, that’s amazing.”

Dr. Hai Nguyen is an orthopedic surgeon with 20 years of experience. He performs about 500 knee and hip surgeries yearly.

“Just as you wouldn’t allow a garage mechanic to balance your tires manually, you’d want him to be on a machine with a computer, the same goes for the knee,” said Dr. Nguyen. “I think you’d want something more precise and more accurate, like a robot. So, the robot came into play, and its revolutionized sort of the way we do these surgeries.”

The robot reduces the need for revision surgeries and shortens recovery time.

“The robot’s versatility allows you to now re-establish the alignment of the patient,” said Dr. Nguyen. “So not that 1 per cent that has degrees of alignment, but you probably have, what, 3 degrees of valgus, I probably have 3 degrees of varus. So we’re recreating what you’ve always had and what you were born with.”

The robot does not move or operate on its own–it uses an infrared camera and optical trackers to assist Dr. Nguyen in gathering data about the knee’s anatomy before removing the damaged bone.

“It’s a tool and it’s a great tool,” said Dr. Nuguyen. “But don’t worry, your surgeon is still the one in charge of the surgery and he’s the one who’s going to perform the surgery on you.”

It came at a cost $1.2 million and was paid by donors to the hospital’s foundation.

“We’re the first francophone hospital to have it, which means it really makes a difference to [the patients]–having it in their hospital that is close to them,” said Véronique Guimont, director of operating room & emergency services at  Charles-Le Moyne Hospital.

The surgery was a success and Graine is looking forward to hiking with his wife. He was up on his feet just two days after the surgery.

“I think Mr. Graine is going to be very happy with what he has now,” said Dr. Nguyen. “I’ve re-established his native alignment. The balance was perfect after surgery. The range of motion was the way he was when he was 30 years old.”