We would like to thank Dr Greenberg and colleagues for their enthusiastic readership
of our work. When writing this systematic review and meta-analysis we anticipated
this would be a contentious topic. It is not our intention to imply that freehand
screws are unsafe or below the standard of care. Let us state now and unequivocally
that freehand screws are safe and effective and well within the standard of care.
The decision to use navigated or robotic screws is one which should depend on patient
characteristics and the surgeon's level of comfort with these techniques. There will
always be a place for freehand screws and knowing how to anatomically place freehand
screws is essential to knowing how to use navigation and robotics effectively. However,
we felt that the results of our meta-analysis could not be ignored. As Dr Greenberg
and colleagues alluded to, the technology in place for robotic and navigated screws
will continue to advance and improve over time. Contrary to prior meta-analysis of
this topic, we found that robotic and navigated screws were either equivalent to or
superior to freehand screws in accuracy and complications.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 21, 2023
Accepted:
April 11,
2023
Received:
April 7,
2023
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofFootnotes
FDA device/drug status: Not applicable.
Author disclosures: AVM: Nothing to disclose. OA: Nothing to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
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