Penn Highlands Healthcare among first to use new software for knee replacement surgery
Summary
DUBOIS — Penn Highlands Healthcare is one of the first health systems in the U.S. to use the new second generation Mako SmartRobotic software to assist with partial and total knee replacement surgeries. “The company carefully selected the facilities that would be afforded the limited, early release of the new software and Penn Highlands was chosen largely due to the volume of knee replacement surgeries we perform and the skillset of our team,” explained Matthew Varacallo, MD, Director of Orthopedic Robotic Surgery and a board-certified orthopedic surgeon at Penn Highlands Healthcare. “The software optimizes the position of the robotics during surgery to provide the surgeon with greater control and flexibility,” explained Varacallo. Another feature of the new robotic software is that it includes an extra database which saves critical information allowing surgeons to analyze data more efficiently and then more accurately picture how the alignment will position. “The data enhances the workflow because it provides the surgeon with a visual representation of the starting deformity and how the correction will be positioned,” said Varacallo.