Accelus’ Remi Robotic Navigation System Used in First Surgeries

Accelus’ surgical robot has made its clinical debut.

Remi placed its first pedicle screw in a patient late last year at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis. Renowned neurosurgeonand Accelus Chief Robotics Officer Kevin Foley, M.D., a key contributor in Remi’s development, performed the procedure using the LineSider posterior fixation system. Since December, successful Remi procedures have taken place in Las Vegas; Shreveport, La.; and Melbourne, Fla. 

“The goal with Remi was to address the limitations of current spinal robotic systems—inefficient workflow, large footprints and high cost—while providing the same accuracy,” said Foley. “LineSider adds to this efficiency with its versatile and streamlined instrumentation. I have been extremely pleased with my first cases utilizing Remi with the LineSider system.”

Remi’s targeting and navigation platform provides robotic-assisted pedicle screw placement for surgeons performing lumbar spine fixation. It is designed to provide the same precision and accuracy as legacy spinal robotic systems but with a smaller footprint, optimized procedural workflow, shorter setup and teardown times, and economically accessible pricing. The Remi Robotic Navigation System is comprised of a workstation that serves as the primary user interface, an ultra-lightweight nearfield camera and a four-pound robotic targeting platform. Both the camera and targeting platform are attached to the operating room table, minimizing the system’s footprint. Its camera also features a wide angle of capture designed to track instrumentation throughout the surgical field and minimize the line-of-sight issues commonly experienced with legacy spine surgery robotic platforms. Remi’s workstation features a touch-screen computer that receives the intraoperative 3-D images and automatically registers the navigation system to the patient’s anatomy. The computer sits atop a 30-inch by 30-inch system cart that is easily transportable and provides storage for all the system’s components when not being used in surgery. This compact footprint makes it suitable for use in all facilities, including ASCs and hospitals with smaller operating rooms.

“Remi represents a substantial evolution in robotic spine surgery as we desired greater efficiency for our robotic-assisted cases,” said Dr. Kornelis Poelstra, an orthopedic and neurological spine surgeon, founder of The Robotic Spine Institute of Las Vegas and a long-term pioneer of MIS robotic technology. “Remi seamlessly integrates with my surgical workflow due to its fast setup time and provides highly accurate and consistent screw placement to help reduce variability and improve my patient outcomes. It has been great fun using it in my OR.”
 
Remi is designed to simplify surgical workflow and provide procedural efficiencies. In a study published in The Cureus Journal of Medicine last year, the Remi robotic targeting and navigation system was determined to have significantly shorter procedure workflow duration while maintaining equivalent accuracy as compared to the most common alternative robotic spine platform.¹ The average total procedure time using the Remi system was 36.6 minutes compared to a total procedure time of 55.0 minutes using an alternative legacy robotic system.
 
“We believe these procedural efficiencies will offer significant economic benefits to facilities, in addition to its already attractive price point,” said Chris Walsh, CEO and co-founder of Accelus. “Our goal is to accelerate the move to minimally invasive spine surgery, and we believe these advantages will make Remi easily accessible to cost-constrained facilities, such as ASCs, and eventually international markets.”
 
Dr. Pierce Nunley, director of the Spine Institute of Louisiana and chairman of the American Board of Spine Surgery, recently performed the world’s first four-level surgery using the Remi with the LineSider system. “Remi’s simplified, intuitive design made it easy to incorporate into my procedural workflow,” he said. “Its rapid system positioning and efficient setup and breakdown may even provide the potential to treat more patients. I also like the fact that it helps me perform an MIS procedure with reduced need for interoperative fluoroscopic images, helping reduce radiation exposure for my patients and staff. This is potentially disruptive and a ‘game changer’ compared to other current robot technologies.”
 
Accelus was established in 2021 through the combination of Integrity Implants and Fusion Robotics. The company is focused on providing its proprietary Adaptive Geometry technology with pragmatic and economical navigation and robotic solutions with broad clinical use in spine surgery. 

Reference 
¹ Soliman M A, Khan A, O’Connor T E, et al. (June 26, 2021) Accuracy and Efficiency of Fusion Robotics™ Versus Mazor-X™ in Single-Level Lumbar Pedicle Screw Placement. Cureus 13(6): e15939. doi:10.7759/cureus.15939