Spine Surgery Robot – Beyond Pedicle Screw Placement

Spinal stenosis is a degenerative and debilitating disease affecting the quality of life. It is one of the most common reasons for surgery in people over 65. Lumbar decompression surgery is the surgical option that includes pedicle screw placement, laminectomy, and other steps. Laminectomy is the highly risky mission critical step because of the complex anatomy, fatigue and mistakes often occur, and damage to the spinal nerves under the thin layer of the lamina will lead to paralysis.

In a recent SpineReview article, twelve spine surgeons all agree that spine surgical robotic systems will have a critical role to play in the future of the specialty, but pedicle screw placement alone is not enough, and spine surgery robots must be able to assist or perform laminectomy, the most important and critical step of the decompression surgery. Yet all marketed products including mostly using third-party robotic arms, can do pedicle screw placement only.

With proprietary technology, Maestro Surgical is developing a spine surgery robot with self-developed procedure specific robotic arm that can do both laminectomy and pedicle screw placement. We have tested pedicle screw placement using our engineering model on animal model and have tested laminectomy function on 3D lumbar models in our lab.

Maestro Surgical is a winner of 2022 MassRobotics Healthcare Robotics Startup Catalyst program in US and a member of Microsoft Startup 2023 Spring cohort.