MAKO Uses SolidWorks to Help Fix Knees

By DE Editors

MAKO (Concord, MA) is announcing MAKOplasty as an option for minimally invasive knee surgery. The company says that many of more than 1,000,000 stiff and aching knees worldwide that get replaced every year are candidates for the procedure, whose key components of a robotic arm and minimally invasive resurfacing knee implants were designed using SolidWorks 3D CAD software.

Based on more than 200 licensed or owned patent applications and patents, MAKOplasty enables orthopedic surgeons to treat patient-specific, early- to mid-stage osteoarthritic knee disease with consistent, reproducible precision. The procedure uses the MAKO Tactile Guidance System (TGS), a proprietary, FDA-cleared surgeon-interactive robotic arm system that controls surgeons’ movements through the use of tactile resistance technology. Computer-generated virtual surfaces guide surgeons and the robotic arm along their planned path and focus cutting on patient-specific 3D visualizations, based on pre-operative imaging.

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., MAKO Surgical Corp. used SolidWorks software to design the TGS, which uses proprietary cable-drives instead of gears to make the robotic arm extremely human-interactive, enabling very high-fidelity tactile response.

For details, visit the MAKO Surgical Corp.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.