QUINCY (WGEM) — Lower back pain, leg pain, and breathing discomfort are all common, but Blessing doctors say new technology is helping them treat those issues in a better way.

Neill Wright, Blessing Physician Services Neurosurgeon says Blessing Hospital now has a Mazor X robot that assists surgeons in the pre-planning stages of surgeries and with making implants during surgery.

“The benefits of this not only is it more accurate for the patient, but because we’re not having to move the muscles around as much, its much less painful,” Wright explained. “So it used to be with the open fusions, patients would be in the hospital for four or five days, now they’re going home the next day.”

Wright said it’s not the robot that performs the surgery, it helps surgeons be more precise during it.

“It’s not the robot doing surgery on a patient, it’s a tool that lets us the surgeon do the surgery more safely, more accurately and less painfully for the patient,” Wright said.

He says right now the robotic system is used mostly for lower back surgeries but it won’t be long before it expands to be used in all spinal surgeries.