CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Precision Medicine
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Precision Medicine for Minimally Invasive Treatment of Pelvis/Hip Fractures: Integration of Digital and Intelligent TechnologiesView all 10 articles
Robot-Assisted Sacral Fracture Reduction with Patient-Specific Finite Element Planning: A Case Report
Provisionally accepted
- Yantaishan Hospital - East Campus, Yantai, China
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This case report focuses on a 19-year-old female with unstable pelvic fracture (AO C1.3), Denis II sacral fracture, and multiple traumas (e.g., thoracolumbar fractures, visceral contusions) from a high fall. Preoperative patient-specific FEA (based on her CT data) simulated three fixation schemes (SDS1EDS2, L5SDS1, L5EDS2), showing comparable vertical stability (P>0.05); SDS1EDS2 was chosen to preserve lumbar mobility. Intraoperatively, the RAFR system enabled 3D planning, automatic path design, and real-time tracking for minimally invasive reduction and fixation. Postoperatively, X-ray/CT confirmed "excellent" reduction (Matta criteria). At 3-month follow-up, the patient had no pain, restored hip mobility, partial neurorecovery, and no implant loosening. The study demonstrates FEA provides a scientific basis for personalized fixation, while RAFR achieves precise minimally invasive reduction. Their integration offers a feasible approach for complex sacral fractures with multi-traumas.
Keywords: Sacral fracture, Robot-assisted fracture reduction (RAFR), finite element analysis (FEA), minimally invasive surgery, Pelvic trauma
Received: 22 Sep 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yupeng, Ge, Hong, Huang, Sun, Li and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tao Sun, sunt519@163.com
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