Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery

The St. Elizabeth Healthcare Orthopeadic team offers a new robotic-arm assisted technology for total knee replacement surgeries. At St. Elizabeth, the use of the Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery System brings exceptional accuracy to the surgery—giving patients less pain and more natural movement right after surgery.

What is Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery?

The robotic-arm assisted surgery technology for total knee replacement allows the orthopedic surgeon to provide patients with a customized surgical experience. The surgeon uses a CT scan of the patient’s knee – taken before the surgery – to provide a three-dimensional (3D) view. This technology allows the surgeon to place the implant more precisely.

Benefits of the Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery include:

Making the decision to have any surgery is always difficult, and a robotic-arm assisted surgery is no exception. There are numerous benefits to undergoing a knee replacement with the Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery, including:

  • Less invasive
  • More precise placement of implant
  • Shorter hospital stays
  • More rapid recovery
  • More natural-feeling knee
  • Better post-surgery motion and mobility

Forefront of Orthopedic Surgical Care

St. Elizabeth Healthcare is among a number of centers nationwide to offer this technology to our patients. St. Elizabeth is a natural fit to pioneer the technology’s easy use since our surgeons have significant experience using similar robotic equipment for knee replacement surgeries. We are proud to be at the forefront of orthopedic surgical care and offer our patients access to this new technology.

Mako Machine

Learn More

If surgery is necessary, our physicians can provide a referral to one of our affiliated orthopedic surgeons. For more information on surgical options, please contact us at askortho@stelizabeth.com.

St. Elizabeth Completes 2,000th Mako Robotic Arm-Assisted Surgery

The Mako Robotic Arm-Assisted Surgery TeamThe surgery team at St. Elizabeth Edgewood reached this milestone using the cutting-edge robotics platform purchased back in 2015, which assist surgeons in performing a more exact surgery via more precise incisions and balancing of the joint implant. The benefit to patients is a quicker path to recovery with a joint implant that is fitted to his/her individual anatomy.

Total Knee Replacement Guide

View the free Guide to Total Knee Replacement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a form of arthritis and a degenerative joint disease characterized by the breakdown and eventual loss of joint cartilage. Cartilage is a protein substance that serves as a cushion between the bones of a joint. With OA, the top layer of cartilage breaks down and wears away, allowing bones under the cartilage to rub together.

Although the root cause of OA is unknown, the risk of developing symptomatic OA is influenced by multiple factors such as age, gender and inherited traits that can affect the shape and stability of your joints. Other factors can include:

  • A previous knee injury.
  • Repetitive strain on the knee.
  • Improper joint alignment.
  • Being overweight.
  • Exercise or sports-generated stress placed on the knee joints.

Symptoms of OA of the knee include:

  • Pain while standing or walking short distances, climbing up or down stairs or getting in and out of chairs.
  • Knee pain with activity.
  • Start up pain or stiffness when activities are initiated from a sitting position.
  • Stiffness in your knee joint after getting out of bed.
  • Swelling in one or more areas of the knee.
  • A grating sensation or crunching feeling when you use your knee.

Whether your OA is mild or severe, your physician will most likely recommend certain lifestyle changes to reduce stress on your knee joints. Additional disease and pain management strategies may include: physical therapy, steroid injections, over-the-counter pain medications such as acetaminophen, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or topical pain relieving creams.

Please speak with your physician if your symptoms aren’t responding to non-surgical solutions, or your pain can no longer be controlled by medication. You could be a candidate for surgery.

The most common surgical knee intervention performed for OA is a total knee replacement. During this procedure, the natural joint is removed and replaced with an artificial implant. This treatment option is usually offered to patients with advanced osteoarthritis of the knee.

Total knee replacement is not always optimal for patients with early to mid-stage osteoarthritis in just one or two compartments of the knee. For patients with partial OA of the knee, MAKOplasty® Partial Knee Resurfacing may be the more appropriate solution.

MAKOplasty® Partial Knee Resurfacing is an innovative treatment option for adults living with early to midstage OA in the medial (inner), patellofemoral (top), or lateral (outer) compartments of the knee. It is powered by the RIO® Robotic Arm Interactive Orthopedic System, an enabling implant design which allows for consistently reproducible precision in performing partial knee resurfacing.

During the procedure, the diseased portion of the knee is resurfaced, sparing the patient’s healthy bone and surrounding tissue. An implant is then secured in the joint to allow the knee to move smoothly again. MAKOplasty® Partial Knee Resurfacing can:

  • Facilitate optimal implant positioning to result in a more natural feeling knee following surgery.
  • Result in a more rapid recovery and shorter hospital stay than traditional knee replacement surgery.
  • Be performed on an outpatient basis.
  • Promote a rapid relief from pain and return to daily activities

As a knee arthroplasty procedure, MAKOplasty® is typically covered by Medicare insurers – check with your private health insurers.

The MAKOplasty® Partial Knee Resurfacing procedure is designed to relieve the pain caused by joint degeneration and potentially offers the following benefits:

  • Improved surgical outcomes
  • Less implant wear and loosening
  • Joint resurfacing
  • Bone sparing
  • Smaller incision
  • Less scarring
  • Reduced blood loss
  • Minimal hospitalization
  • Rapid recovery

The RIO Robotic Arm Interactive Orthopedic System features three dimensional pre-surgical planning. During surgery, the RIO provides the surgeon with real-time visual, tactile and auditory feedback to facilitate optimal joint resurfacing and implant positioning. It is this optimal placement that can result in more natural knee motion following surgery.

Typically, MAKOplasty® patients share the following characteristics:

  • Knee pain with activity, usually on the inner knee and/or under the knee cap, or the outer knee.
  • Start up knee pain or stiffness when activities are initiated from a sitting position.
  • Failure to respond to non-surgical treatments or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication.

MAKOplasty® can be performed as either an inpatient procedure or an outpatient basis depending on what your orthopedic surgeon determines is right for you. Hospital stays average anywhere from one to three days, ambulatory patients return home the same day. In many cases, patients are permitted to walk soon after surgery, drive a car within two weeks and return to normal activities shortly thereafter.

All implants have a life expectancy that depends on several factors including the patients weight, activity level, quality of bone stock and compliance with their physician’s orders. Proper implant alignment and precise positioning during surgery are also very important factors that can improve the life expectancy of an implant. Through the use of RIO, implants can be optimally aligned and positioned to ensure the longest benefit. RESTORIS MCK implants enable the treatment of one or two compartments with OA disease. With single compartment disease, a second compartment may be treated in the future if OA spreads. In addition, because very little bone is actually removed during a MAKOplasty® procedure, the implants can be replaced with another procedure such as a total knee replacement, if necessary.

Meet Your Knee Surgeons

Ronald Auer, MD

Ronald Auer, MD

James Bilbo, MD

James Bilbo, MD

Matthew Grunkemeyer, MD

Matthew Grunkemeyer, MD

Forest Heis, MD

Forest Heis, MD

Bruce Holladay, MD

Bruce Holladay, MD

Matthew Hummel, MD

Matthew Hummel, MD

John Larkin, MD

John Larkin, MD

Adam Metzler, MD

Adam Metzler, MD

Robert Pettit, MD

Robert Pettit, MD

Jonathon Spanyer, MD

Jonathon Spanyer, MD

Brian Wissel, MD

Brian Wissel, MD

Contact Us

Is your knee pain bothering you?

Schedule an appointment with our Sports Medicine physicians for a treatment plan tailored to you. Call (859) 212-5600 to make an appointment.

Surgical Options

If surgery is necessary, our physicians can provide a referral to one of our affiliated orthopaedic surgeons. For more information on surgical options, please contact us at askortho@stelizabeth.com.