OBJECTIVES: Advancements in knee arthroplasty, such as the introduction of RA surgical systems, have been shown to increase the precision of these interventions; however, there is a paucity of data to evaluate the economic benefits that RA surgeries may provide. This study aimed to quantify the number of OR trays and instruments utilized during TKA, rTKA, and UKA surgeries with a handheld RA surgical system compared to standard conventional (SC) instrumentation. In addition, sterilization time and cost were evaluated.

METHODS: Handheld RA surgeon users from 10 US-based facilities were invited to participate. Each surgeon provided the number of trays and instruments used during RA and SC TKA, rTKA and UKA surgeries. For SC surgeries, instrumentation data was gathered from standard tray setups. Previously published sterilization time and cost (adjusted for inflation) for individual tray processing was utilized to estimate sterilization time and costs. Each facility was its own control; therefore, a paired t-test was used to test for differences between interventions.

RESULTS: A total of nine, eight and four surgeons reported complete data on TKA, rTKA and UKA respectively. RA surgeries used fewer trays compared to SC, with RA surgeries using 2.8, 8.3 and 1.3 less trays (p<0.001) for TKA, rTKA and UKA respectively. Similarly, RA surgeries used fewer instruments compared to SC, with RA surgeries using 44.7, 118 and 42.5 less instruments (p=0.0002) for TKA, rTKA and UKA respectively. RA sterilization time decreased by 84, 250 and 37.8 minutes (p<0.001) and sterilization cost decreased by $286, $753, and $272 (p=0.0002) per case for TKA, rTKA and UKA compared to SC.

CONCLUSIONS: The adoption of handheld RA technology for knee arthroplasty procedures can improve OR efficiency by significantly reducing surgical instrumentation use, sterilization time and costs helping providers and payors manage their budgets.