Artificial intelligence and knee prosthetic surgery: the revolution at Villa Erbosa

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing knee prosthetic surgery, paving the way for increasingly personalized and high-performance interventions. Leading this change is the Villa Erbosa nursing home in Bologna of the San Donato Group, among the first centers in Europe to have adopted AI in this field. Professor Gennaro Pipino, head of one of the facility's Orthopedics operational units, takes stock of this evolution.

Traditional approaches and limits

Until now, prosthetic surgery has been based on manual instruments capable of performing mechanical or kinematic alignments. “A purely mechanical alignment offers stability in extension and half flexion-extension, while the kinematic one guarantees stability during the movement but risks leaving the centers of gravity not fully active,” explains the prof. Pippin.

Artificial intelligence overcomes this dichotomy: "It manages to combine the best of kinematic and mechanical alignment, resolving the limitations of manual methods. In this way, an ideal balance and decidedly superior joint performance is achieved."

Artificial intelligence in knee replacement surgery

One of the most innovative contributions of AI lies in the ability to process pre-operative data and numerical parameters invisible to the human eye. “The AI ​​provides us with extremely high precision indications to respect the mechanical and kinematic elements, allowing us to perfectly center the center of gravity of the knee,” underlines the specialist.

Centering the center of gravity means creating a "workmanlike" implant, with concrete advantages for the patient's life: by drastically reducing the wear coefficients, the prosthesis is much more long-lasting over time, restoring a natural, fluid and immediately familiar joint.

How the intervention changes

“The intervention is built on the anatomical characteristics of the patient”, underlines Professor Pipino. AI develops a virtual plan tailored to each patient, like a 'tailored suit'. From this planning, personalized surgical masks are created that guide the specialist's hand during the surgical procedure.

The clinical benefits are evident: the intervention is quicker, more targeted and less invasive. They translate into less blood loss, a drastic decrease in post-operative swelling, a lower risk of infections and, consequently, a much faster rehabilitation recovery.

An “adolescent” AI guided by the surgeon's experience

Despite the great strides that have led it to overcome the rigid limits of classical robotic surgery, artificial intelligence remains a fundamental support tool and not a substitute for the doctor.

We can define AI as still an "adolescent" technology, which is learning day after day from the analysis of clinical cases - explains Prof. Pipino -; it provides precious data, but the final decision and surgical planning remain firmly in the hands of the specialist. It is like driving a racing car with the controls on the steering wheel: the technology is very advanced, but a highly experienced driver is needed to know how to govern it and adapt it to the individual case.

At Villa Erbosa, technology is a tool included in a broader, multidisciplinary path, in which clinical experience and attention to the individual patient remain central.