"CUVIS-spine," spinal surgical robot developed by CUREXO, the medical robot specialized company, successfully performed its first operation at the Severance Hospital, Sinchon.

According to the company, "CUVIS-spine" had successfully carried out the insertion of pedicle screws on a patient with spinal stenosis and degenerative spondylolisthesis. After the surgery, image examinations had proven the fixation of the screws as originally planned, and the patient was able to leave the hospital on the fifth day with improvements.

Dr. Seong Yi?of the department of neurosurgery at the Severance Hospital, Sinchon?is inserting the screws using CUVIS-spine.

Until now, to increase the surgical accuracy, movable X-ray equipment, C-arm, was used and observed in real-time, which raised the risk of exposure to radiation for both the patients and medical team. But surgery with robots enables accurate and safe operation without such risk.

CUVIS-spine, especially, is the first spinal surgical robot to be domestically developed in the country and fifth to be commercialized in global medical fields.

CUVIS-spine is equipped with the system of a spinal surgical robot that guides the location and position of surgical instruments, and surgical accuracy increases as it plans a surgery based on 2D C-arm or 3D CT images and corrects while monitoring the patient's posture in real-time during the insertion of pedicle screws into patients with spinal stenosis, spinal disc herniation, or scoliosis. Also, safety increases as the exposure to radiation are lessened during the surgery. Thanks to this, patients can quickly return to their daily lives.

"I expect that Korean robots will be able to enter the market by accumulating track records and creating clinical evidence in the field of spinal surgical robots, which is expanding globally," Dr. Seong Yi, of the department of neurosurgery at Severance Hospital, who participated in developing CUVIS-spine, said. "Linked with the Medical Robot Training Center?which will be established at the Severance Hospital over the next five years?the clinical data of spinal surgical robots, including safety, validity, and radiation safety level will contribute to the development and globalization of the domestic surgical robot industry."

Severance Hospital said it would apply CUVIS-spine to a total of 50 spinal surgeries this year, followed by the introduction of the robot.

"This successful spinal robotic surgery at the Severance Hospital is a great chance to prove the excellence of our medical robot," CEO Jae-jun Lee of CUREXO commented. "In the future, we will develop more advanced medical robots and actively proceed with the entry of domestic and overseas medical sites through our continued cooperation with the Severance Hospital."

Meanwhile, CUVIS-spine had acquired CE markings from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety last December and from Europe last May. It completed submitting s to the U.S. FDA and is now waiting for approval.

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