TiRobot‐Assisted Percutaneous Cannulated Screw Fixation in the Treatment of Femoral Neck Fractures: A Minimum 2‐Year Follow‐up of 50 Patients

OBJECTIVE: To assess the long‐term clinical efficacy of TiRobot‐assisted percutaneous cannulated screw fixation in the treatment of femoral neck fractures. METHODS: This retrospective study included 50 patients with unilateral femoral neck fractures who were treated with TiRobot‐assisted percutaneous cannulated screw fixation from September 2017 to May 2018. After at least 2 years of follow‐up, the results of treatment, including operation duration, frequency of fluoroscopy use, intraoperative bleeding, hospital stay, medical expense, screw placement accuracy, rate of fracture healing and necrosis of the femoral head, and Harris hip scores at the last follow up, were recorded and compared with those of 83 matched patients who underwent conventional manual positioning surgery. RESULTS: The TiRobot group had longer operation duration (83.3 ± 31.2 min vs 44.1 ± 14.8 min) and higher medical expenses (28,407.1 ± 7498.0 yuan vs 22,672.3 ± 4130.3 yuan) than the conventional group. The TiRobot group had significantly less intraoperative bleeding (11.3 ± 7.3 mL vs 51.6 ± 40.4 mL) and shorter hospital stay (8.6 ± 2.8 days vs 11.1 ± 3.41 days) than the conventional group. Screw parallelism (1.32° ± 1.85° vs 2.54° ± 2.99° on anteroposterior radiograph; 1.42° ± 2.25° vs 3.09° ± 3.63° on lateral radiograph) and distance between screws (58.44 ± 10.52 mm vs 39.69 ± 12.17 mm) were significantly improved. No significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of the use of fluoroscopy (40.1 ± 28.5 times vs 38.6 ± 21.0 times) and Harris hip scores at the last follow‐up (93.2 ± 10.3 points vs 88.4 ± 11.9 points). Two cannulated screws penetrated the femoral head during manual insertion in the conventional group but not in the TiRobot group. The rate of nonunion and necrosis of the femoral head in the TiRobot group was reduced compared with that in the conventional group (0 vs 7.2%; 6.0% vs 24.1%). CONCLUSION: TiRobot‐assisted percutaneous cannulated screw fixation of femoral neck fractures is accurate and minimally invasive and helps in reducing late complications, particularly necrosis of the femoral head and nonunion of fractures.