Dr. Marco Demange, orthopedist specialized in knee surgery and associate professor of the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology at FMUSP, performed at Hospital Vila Nova Star, in São Paulo, the first unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) with the MAKO robotic system in Brazil. The procedure marks the arrival in the country of a technology used internationally for 19 years.
The MAKO robotic system has already been applied in more than 240 thousand surgical procedures around the world, according to the manufacturer's data. Unicompartmental arthroplasty is indicated for selected patients who present osteoarthritis located in only one of the knee compartments.
Unlike total prosthesis, which replaces the entire joint, the unicompartmental technique allows specific treatment of the affected region, preserving the structures that remain healthy. Dr. Demange highlights that there is a significant difference between the two surgical approaches.
