■ With Honghu Total Knee System independently developed by MicroPort^® OrthoBot, a robot-assisted total knee replacement operation has been completed in the Ninth People's Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine.

■ Honghu has solved the problems of inaccuracy in traditional joint replacement surgery, over-reliance on operator experience and inability to achieve standardized clinical effects.

&Shanghai, China --- with Honghu Total Knee System (hereinafter referred to as "Honghu") (also known as "joint replacement surgery robot") completely independently developed by Suzhou MicroPort^® OrthoBot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "MicroPort^® OrthoBot"), a robotics-specialized subsidiary of MicroPort^® (Shanghai) Medbot Co., Ltd. (Hereinafter referred to as "Microport^® Medbot"), a robot-assisted total knee replacement operation has been completed in the Ninth People's Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine on June 30, 2020. Li Huiwu, director of the Department of Orthopedic of the hospital, and his team successfully operated on a female patient, and the X-ray examination shows that the patient's lower limb force line has achieved the best reconstruction effect. The successful development of robot-assisted total knee replacement marks the successful completion of the enrollment for the first human clinical trial (FIM) Honghu, which was independently developed by MicroPort^® OrthoBot.

Honghu Total Knee System is a surgical robot product for total knee replacement. Compared with traditional joint replacement surgery, the robot-assisted joint replacement surgery can help orthopedic surgeons solve the traditional problems in surgery and achieve higher operational accuracy. Honghu is composed of an operation platform, a control panel and surgical accessories, which provides a novel and complete solution in the dimensions of preoperative diagnosis, intraoperative safety, convenience and surgical interaction.

The preoperative planning system of Honghu is based on the patient's preoperative 3D CT scanning data to generate personalized prosthesis implantation operation program, consider the patient's original kinematic alignment and mechanical axis alignment, and conduct individual modeling after measurement and design, thus solving the problems of imprecision, over-reliance on the operator's experience and inability to achieve standardized clinical effects in a traditional joint replacement surgery. The independently researched and developed operation mode of high dexterity lightweight manipulator and man-machine cooperation can quickly complete the osteotomy process, improve the operation efficiency, reduce the space occupation of operating room, guide the doctors to accurately realize the expectation of preoperative plan, improve the accuracy of bone resection and limb alignment after operation, minimize the iatrogenic bone and soft tissue injuries around joints, reduce surgical complications, and help patients recover faster after surgery.

Many robot-assisted surgical functions have been achieved at a high level with outstanding performance with Honghu Total Knee System. At the same time, the System can automatically locate for bone resection during operation. This avoids the problem that the intramedullary positioning tool will cause damage to the patient's medullary cavity in a traditional operation, thus achieving less bleeding and smaller trauma. It provides a solution to the long-existing clinical problems through precise bone resection, precise placement of prosthesis, calibration and elimination of human error and standardized postoperative effect. The System is well matched with the unique internal axis knee prosthesis of MicroPort^® Orthobot, which greatly reduces the incidence of joint loosening, inaccurate force line and joint dislocation caused by conventional surgical techniques. The postoperative patient examination report shows that robot-assisted osteotomy can achieve accurate recovery of force line, with good prognosis effect, which proves that the System has unique clinical advantages compared with the traditional surgery.

In 2017, the project "Research and Development of Joint Surgery Robot System with Hip-Knee Compatibility, Safety, Efficiency and Minimally Traumatic" jointly declared by MicroPort® with domestic universities and colleges was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology and became the first joint surgery robot project under the national key special supports of China. After years of in-depth cooperation among the teams, industries, universities and medical institutions, many key technical problems have been overcome, and a joint replacement robot system with core technology and independent intellectual property right has been developed.

At present, Honghu Total Knee System has officially entered the "Special Procedure for Review of Innovative Medical Devices" of the National Medical Products Administration and is expected to speed up its marketization process in China and fill the gap in the field of joint replacement robots of China. When marketized, the product will further improve the overall industrial layout of MicroPort^® in the orthopedic field with cutting-edge treatment concepts and advanced tools and provide more high-quality and inclusive integrated orthopedic medical solutions with innovative design and industry-leading manufacturing capabilities as the core advantages to patients around the world.

With the arrival of an aging society, the incidence of osteoarthritis soars up among the elderly. According to the World Health Organization data, there are more than 400 million osteoarthrosis patients in the world, including over 100 million osteoarthritis patients in China. In 2019, the artificial joint replacement in China exceeded 800,000 sets, making it the second largest joint replacement market after the United States, and the operation amount is expected to increase by about 20% every year. Due to the relatively high technical threshold of joint replacement surgery, how to help more doctors quickly master the surgical skills and realize the replication of postoperative curative effect has become an important factor restricting the further promotion and popularization of joint replacement surgery. The emergence of joint replacement surgery robot is conducive to promoting micro-trauma of conventional surgery, standardization of complex surgery and intelligentization of difficult surgeries; it can shorten the learning curve of doctors on the basis of solving the pain points of traditional orthopedic surgery so that more doctors can master the difficult operation methods.

Dr. He Chao, General Manager of Microport^® Medbot, said: "the first case of clinical trial with joint replacement surgery robot completed on the human body is an important milestone in the collectivization platform strategy of Microport^® Medbot. We believe that in the near future, the certification and marketization of Honghu will promote the clinical popularization and the development of related industries in China, and at the same time, and eventually promote the innovation of diagnosis and treatment methods. As a leader in high-end innovative medical solutions in the field of surgical robots, we will continue to promote the R&D of products and and expansion of application and provide universal and integrated solutions to more patients and doctors."