Increasing Use of Robotics in the Orthopedic Surgery Market
Orthopedic surgery robotics are creating to help orthopedic surgeons perform surgeries with more efficiency, precision, and accuracy. These robots allow a surgery to be reproducible, which is not always possible simply with using the human hands.
The capabilities of the robots’ hands are endless. The robots are able to provide fine movements to surgeries that usually require invasive procedures and deep cutting. The rates of orthopedic ailments continues to rise in the medical industry, as well as the shift in mindset of understanding the advantages surgical robots bring to the table. There has even been an increased awareness from a patient perspective, sometimes requiring a surgical robot aid in their own surgery, especially for knee and hip replacements. In these procedures, robotic technologies are used to make precise movements that preserve bone and tissue and often aid in faster recovery and less damage to the overall body.
Tech Overview
The technologies used ranges from pressure sensors, gyroscopes (a device used for measuring or maintain orientation and angular velocity), and accelerometers (a device used to measure the vibration or acceleration of a motion structure). These robotic technologies ensures that the implant, whether it be the hip or knee, are aligned at the correct angles. The goal of using robotics in surgeries is to use a less invasive approach and provide more stability. One of the most common patient complaints is the dissatisfaction and pain an implant might cause. This is due to the minor instability that can happen from a surgeon replacing the bone. The use of robotics in orthopedic surgeries also offer advantages such as minimum post-operative discomfort, brief hospital stays, limit blood transfusions or anesthesia, and can reduce the risk of surgical site infections.
Market Research
The latest market research reported that the orthopedic surgical robotic market is poised to grow by USD 1.06 billion during 2020-2024 progressing at a compound annual growth rate of about 44%. Hospitals are starting to understand the advantages robotics bring to their practice. Hospital systems use value based outcomes and length of hospitals stay as endpoints to increase their total revenues. Orthopedic surgical robots may help alleviate these issues. On the other side, people are also living longer. With longer lives, comes more aging. There is a higher prevalence of rising number of knee and hip replacements due to arthritis, bone degenerative diseases, osteoporosis, and general falls.
Nevertheless, there are many hinderances to accomplish the development of the surgical robotic market globally. Attached to these surgeries are exorbitant expenses, strict government regulations, and shortage of skilled experts. Structured training programs needs to be developed to promote the use of these technologies. There also needs to be more randomized control trials to establish the cost effectiveness of these technologies in the hospital setting; health economics and outcomes research will help as a whole to increase robotic cost transparency. In the manufacturing side, there is also new robotic products coming to market, and therefore there will be more penetration and exposure to the hospital systems.
Generally, the community remains optimistic regarding the future of the orthopedic surgical robotics market. Companies will continue to expand their robotic footprint into this emerging field as it has a predisposition for immense growth potential.
