HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — St. Mary’s Regional Joint Replacement Center announced today the addition of a Blue Belt Technologies Navio® Surgical System for Partial Knee Replacement Surgery.

The Navio system provides patients one of the most advanced surgical technologies in the area by helping surgeons perform precise and accurate partial knee replacement surgeries without the need of a CT scan.

The technology utilizes an advanced CT-free intraoperative registration, planning and navigation platform to assist the surgeon in building patient-specific surgical plans. The Navio robotic-controlled hand piece assists the surgeon in preparing the bone with the precision of robotics in a hand-held, freehand sculpting technique.

Dr. Vivek Neginhal, medical director of St. Mary’s Regional Joint Replacement Center and an orthopedic surgeon with Scott Orthopedic Center, is the first in West Virginia to use the new system. “Using the Navio system allows me to visualize my patient’s x-ray before I even begin to remove bone,” Dr. Neginhal said. “Robotic-controlled smart instrumentation like the Navio allows us to very precisely resurface our patient’s knees for partial knee replacements. This precision can lead to improved patient outcomes.”

With no pre-operative CT-scan required, the Navio system integrates easily into existing knee-replacement workflows. This allows the patient to receive the benefits of robotic-guidance without additional time spent for pre-operative procedures. Instead, the surgeon registers the patient during the procedure using kinematic reconstruction and anatomic landmarks.

This information assists the surgeon in planning the implant location and balancing the knee’s ligaments for a more natural feeling knee.