Bloodless, minimally invasive surgical techniques applied in Orthopedics promise rapid recovery, less discomfort and better quality of life in patients with orthopedic problems. These are endoscopic and robotic surgeries performed to treat chronic diseases of the spine and joints.
These operations are performed with incisions of a few millimeters, last less than an hour, the patient can walk immediately after the operation and be discharged within the same day.
Developments in minimally invasive techniques applied in Orthopedics are the subject of the 1st International Congress of Minimally Invasive Orthopedic Surgery organized on May 13-15 by the First Orthopedic Clinic in collaboration with the Medical Diagnostic Orthopedic and Traumatology Society of Macedonia-Thrace, under the auspices of the Hellenic Arthroscopy Society. The conference, held at the Medical Inter-Balkan Amphitheater, is attended by 50 distinguished scientists from 15 countries.
As the chairman of the organizing committee of the conference and director of the Orthopedic Clinic of Inter-Balkan Medicine, Stylianos Kapetanakis, pointed out, the intervertebral disc hernias, which concern younger patients and the spinal stenoses, which concern older patients can be treated with endoscopic surgery, without blood, without the need for blood transfusions, without inflammation and with minimal burden on the patient.
“The present and the future of endoscopic techniques in Orthopedics is based on minimal intervention. So we are talking about very small incisions without large hospitalization. Some patients are released the same day, often after a few hours. The patient is mobilized immediately, can continue walking as when he came to the hospital and with less pain. And the most important thing is the immediate, many times, reintegration into his workplace and the activities he did. Therefore, the arthroscopic techniques and in general the minimally invasive techniques in Orthopedics have characteristics which are mainly related to the immediate mobilization, the immediate reintegration, the minimal hospitalization and the minimal intervention “noted Mr. Kapetanakis.
At the same time, he pointed out that in the context of the conference, there is a debate between Greek and foreign scientists who present their ideas and the advantages of the minimally invasive techniques that they apply. He also mentioned that the Athens Medical Group has invested in robotic techniques but also in chondrocyte transplantation.
Robotic knee surgery with minimal hospitalization
“The data are very encouraging. It is very important to be able to do robotic knee surgery with minimal hospitalization, with immediate mobilization of the patient who can leave one day after a total arthroplasty, who was discharged after 4-5 days, without inflammation, not to enter the blood transfusion process. At the First Orthopedic Clinic of the Inter-Balkan, where we do discectomy, the treatment is hours. Beyond that, there are newer data from autologous chondrocyte transplants with very positive results as we see that the cartilage that is created is equal to normal cartilage. “So cartilage deficits are now treated with autologous chondrocyte transplantation”, continued Mr. Kapetanakis.
In the arthroscopic treatment of elbow injuries with a technique applied in a few centers in Europe, said the director of the department of specialized sports diseases at the hospital St. Josef in Wuppertal, Germany, Christos Koukos. “We no longer need to make large incisions in the elbow to deal with an instability, as we have done so far by getting grafts using tendons. There are only three or four of us in Europe using these techniques. We restore the stability of the elbow with arthroscopic techniques, making a suture either on the inside or on the outside “, noted Mr. Koukos. At the same time, he stated that the operation lasts 30-40 minutes, is performed under general anesthesia and in three to four weeks the mobility is fully restored and after three months the athlete can return to competitive activity. Mr. Koukos stated that the method is already used in ordinary patients to treat the so-called “tennis player elbow”. “We also see what the differential diagnoses are, especially on the outside of the elbow, and at the same time we treat them all together, not just this epicondylitis that is in the tendon bulge,” he added.
A technique for treating neck or spine problems due to compression, which has not yet been applied in Greece, was presented by Peter Van Daele, a spine surgeon specializing in endoscopic surgery at the University of Ghent in Belgium. “I perform operations with very small incisions of 5 to 8 millimeters and I can operate on the cervical spine, the thoracic spine and the lumbar spine. At the conference I presented the neck surgery, in which very small incisions make the operation minimally invasive with a quick recovery and fewer complications. “These surgeries have less blood loss, do not show inflammation, there is no fixation of patients who go out the same day and do not need metal implants, nails or blades,” added Mr. Van Daele.
The assessment that new methods will follow was expressed by Michael Hess, a spine surgeon in London. “Unfortunately, minimally invasive surgery is not the rule, but I am sure that it will be done and new techniques will follow. The advantages are not what you see on the skin, ie the smaller incisions, it is what happens inside, that we do not cut muscles or other structures and the main thing is that we recover without general anesthesia. “I personally use drunkenness, so patients breathe on their own, they wake up very quickly, so recovery is very fast,” he said.
The Deputy Minister of Interior (Macedonia and Thrace), Stavros Kalafatis, addressed the opening ceremony of the conference, congratulating the organizers, pointing out that the conference is a very important initiative that strengthens the image of the city of Thessaloniki as a center of extroversion and extroversion. As he mentioned, the conference is in line with the effort made by the government in the last two years to make Thessaloniki a hub of innovation and extroversion, pioneering education and a reference point for scientists around the world. “Such a conference, which is attended by outstanding scientists of world level, on the one hand gives the opportunity to advance this excellent science and on the other hand to strengthen the brand of the city of Thessaloniki as an important conference tourism hub,” said Mr. Kalafatis, who on the occasion congratulated and expressed his gratitude to all the doctors and nurses for the fight they gave the last 2.5 years of the pandemic.
The president of the Athens Medical Group, Georgios Apostolopoulos, in a videotaped message noted that the aim of the conference is to transmit scientific knowledge to the international community. “Through our conferences, important personalities of international prestige who took part in them characterized the Inter-Balkan Medical Center of Thessaloniki as the temple of health,” added Mr. Apostolopoulos.
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