A few days ago, a truly unique surgery was performed in the orthopaedic ward of AGEL Košice-Šaca Hospital under the direction of the head of the One Day Health Care, Tomáš Ševčík, MD, MPH. Thanks to the technological innovation, not only a precise correction but also a detailed placement of the implant in the operated wrist is achieved.

The patient, who was the first to undergo the new type of surgery, suffered a myocardial infarction a year ago and a concomitant compound fracture of the lower end of the radius. “As his condition was complicated, even a delayed wrist surgery was not possible. During the healing process, he gradually developed a complex deformity of the radius – displacement in all three planes,” Tomáš Ševčík, M.D., MPH, the primary of the One-day Health Care at the AGEL Košice-Šaca Hospital, said that until recently, such conditions were solved by surgery, during which the bone was sawed and straightened. However, the correction was done only by eye, so to speak, by means of the assessment of the preoperative X-ray image. “In published studies, this correction was based on about 80 percent, compared to a healthy wrist. However, the development of technology and computer technology has already enabled us to perform a new type of surgery in Slovakia, namely correction of bone deformity using 3D planning in special graphic programs. The operation itself is already performed in the program, the bone is virtually cut and straightened according to the healthy wrist. A scanned splint and screws are then modelled onto the bone to be used in the actual procedure,” explained the orthopaedic surgeon, who likes the new method.

“With this procedure, we can achieve precise correction, exact implant placement and screw dimensions. At the end, we receive from the company a 3D model of the corrected bone, a cutting and drilling template, which we sterilize and use during the operation. Overall, this technology helps us cut the surgical time by about half and significantly improves the accuracy of the correction,” MUDr. Tomáš Ševčík, MPH from the Clinic of Musculoskeletal and Sports Medicine, which is thanks to the cooperation with the Technical University in Košice and the company Biomedical Engeneering s.r.o. Košice is currently the only orthopaedic workplace in Slovakia that has the possibility to use such a procedure in the correction of deformities.