Robot Assisted Fracture Surgery
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Robot Assisted Fracture Surgery
IRAS ID
160972
Contact name
Sanja Dogramadzi
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 7 months, 31 days
Research summary
We are investigating ways in which a robot is able to manoeuvre fragments of a broken bone back into position (called 'reduction' of a fracture) for a range of lower limb fractures, including neck of femur, distal (end of) femur and proximal (upper)tibia.
The aim of this work package is to confirm what the end user (e.g. surgeons, patients) would want from the Robot Assisted Fracture Surgery (RAFS) so its future design can be tailored to their requirements. Responses will be noted using structured interview questionnaires and focus groups with up to 50 clinical specialists, expert users and patients. The project will also use specialised x-ray (C.T.) scans of relevant fractures to develop and validate fracture reduction software, which will guide the robot.
CT scans and X rays (radiographic images), are used as part of the routine clinical care at the University Hospitals Bristol (UHB), NHS Foundation Trust. UHB will provide CT images of distal femur or similar fractures, which will be used for development of 3D reduction algorithm and for the surgical registration software development. The CT scans will include pre and post-operative images of broken bones.
The final stage of the study is a validation stage that will be based on the same types of fractures as the laboratory validation using leg cadavers. Leg cadavers do not have all characteristics of live soft tissue but will be appropriately fractured by experts in bone mechanics at the Department of Anatomy at University of Bristol. We will use 20 cadavers with equal numbers of left and right legs, male and female legs and use randomisation to ensure that we pick a random leg per patient for the test and experimental stages. The fractures will be reduced by surgeons and/or reduced by the robot and the resulting fixation x-rayed for comparison.REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/WM/0038
Date of REC Opinion
25 Feb 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion