Colorado man comes to St. Joseph Medical Center for state-of-the-art knee replacement technology

(Left) Scott Mactiernan is up 90 minutes after knee surgery. (Center) 24 hours after surgery, he takes five laps around the nurses station. (Right) Headed home 48 hours after surgery. Photos courtesy St. Joseph Medical Center.

Colorado Man Comes to Kansas City for State of the Art Knee Replacement Technology

    Scott Mactiernan is from the small town of Paosa Springs, CO,and desperately needed a double knee replacement. He was planning to have the replacement through normal surgical procedures by a local orthopedic surgeon when his wife Kelly heard about the NAVIO Surgical System, a cutting-edge platform that provides robotic assistance in knee replacement surgery, from a friend that works at St. Joseph Medical Center. Scott and Kelly decided to meet with Dr. Scott Abraham with Apex Orthopedics. Little did they know Scott would have both knees replaced, walk 90 minutes post operatively and go home only two days later.

The Mactiernans were convinced Scott would need to stay at a rehab facility after his surgery. During their first meeting, Kelly told Dr. Abraham, “Now I know he will have to go to an inpatient rehab hospital for a while.” Dr. Abraham quickly replied, “Why?” Dr. Abraham was determined that with the help of the robotic technology,  Scott would be discharged directly from the hospital with physical therapy only a few days later. And that’s exactly what occurred.

Scott had surgery the morning of Thursday July 5, and said, “90 minutes after surgery, I started physical therapy and by 4 pm that afternoon I was taking steps on both legs.” He was discharged from the hospital on Saturday July 7.  “No one could believe it,” he said. “The staff, providers, and physical therapist were all blown away by my progress.” The Navio surgical system is so precise and accurate that Dr. Abraham is consistently seeing recovery times improve. “We invested in this technology because we want our patients to have access to the very best healthcare available today,” said Dr. Abraham, Orthopedic Surgeon at St. Joseph Medical Center. “Robotic assistance will only further enhance our ability to achieve great patient outcomes.”

St. Joseph Medical Center is the first and only facility in Kansas City to have the half a million-dollar NAVIO Surgical System. Robotic assistance enables surgeons with accuracy and precision – important factors in determining the long-term success of the surgery.

Dr. Abraham is particularly focused on using the NAVIO system to help perform outpatient partial and total knee replacements. Outpatient surgery is a growing trend in orthopedics that allows patients to go home in less than 24 hours. Other benefits include lower risk of infection and lower costs.

With the NAVIO system, patients are not required to undergo a radiation intensive CT-scan prior to surgery, common with other robotics-assisted surgical platforms. Instead, the surgeon collects each patient’s unique bone structure during the procedure using an advanced surgical probe. This information is used to generate a 3D model of the patient’s knee which is used to plan the surgery. To perform the procedure, a robotics-assisted surgical tool is used to remove just enough space to make room for the implant, which is replacing the damaged bone in the knee.  The NAVIO system does this within millimeters of the surgeon’s intent. This extra layer of precision is designed to enable optimal implant placement for better patient outcomes.

Dr. Abraham added, “The introduction of robotic assistance should have knee replacement candidates feeling very confident about the future of knee surgery. Having this technology available right here in our center is a tremendous asset and should benefit our community for many years to come.”

St. Joseph Medical Center and Dr. Abraham are hosting patient informational seminars on September 18 and 25 at noon in St. Joseph’s Community Center to introduce the NAVIO robotics-assisted surgery program. To register for the event, or to learn more about who may benefit from a robotics-assisted knee replacement procedure, please call Ericka Beeler at 816-943-2687.