ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Orthopedic Surgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2025.1517470
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Dawn of Future Orthopaedic Surgery: Intraoperative Navigation and Robotic Assistance - Volume IIView all 5 articles
Clinical outcomes of robot-assisted versus conventional free-hand technique in spine surgery
Provisionally accepted
- Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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Background Robot-assisted surgery has been increasingly applied in spinal surgery in recent years, but the differences in efficacy compared to conventional free-hand surgery remain unclear. This study aims to evaluate the impact of these two surgical approaches on spinal surgery patients by analyzing baseline characteristics, surgical data, short-term postoperative outcomes, and long-term functional recovery and pain relief. Methods This study first analyzed the differences in baseline characteristics and surgical data between the robot-assisted and conventional free-hand surgery groups, including age, gender, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Multivariate logistic regression was then used to explore the effects of baseline characteristics and surgical methods on short-term postoperative outcomes, such as complications, reoperations, fracture healing, and spinal alignment recovery. Finally, generalized estimating equations (GEE) were employed to assess the impact of surgical methods on long-term postoperative outcomes, including Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and pain scores. Results Diabetes and hypertension significantly increased the risk of postoperative complications and reoperation, while robot-assisted surgery significantly reduced the incidence of complications and reoperation. In terms of spinal structural recovery after surgery, the robot-assisted surgery group showed better results. Long-term follow-up revealed that robot-assisted surgery significantly reduced ODI and pain scores, and over time, the robot-assisted group consistently demonstrated superior functional recovery and pain relief compared to the conventional surgery group. Conclusion Robot-assisted surgery showed significant advantages in both short-term postoperative recovery and long-term functional improvement and pain relief. It outperformed conventional free-hand surgery in reducing complication rates, accelerating postoperative recovery, lowering reoperation rates, and promoting fracture healing and spinal alignment recovery.
Keywords: Robot-assisted surgery, Conventional free-hand surgery, postoperative recovery, Generalized estimating equation (GEE), spinal surgery
Received: 26 Oct 2024; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bao, Yan, Wu, Cheng, Xu and Yang. 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: Beixi Bao, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
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