Sammie is a Research Assistant Practitioner in the Cancer Clinical Trials Team at UHCW. In 2023 Sammie experienced a different side to research when she became a participant in the RACER Study.

"In 2013 I had a skiing accident and ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament (known as your ACL), which is one of the ligaments in the knee joint. The ACL connects the bottom of the thighbone to the top of the shin bone and keeps your knee stable.

I had an ACL reconstruction but was still experiencing problems afterwards and had to have an ‘ACL revision’, where they took hamstring from my other leg and put it in my damaged leg.

My knee still kept on giving way and I had to wear a hard leg brace. The pain in my right knee was still there, especially when walking and going up and down stairs, and it affected both my work and home life.

By 2020, I was experiencing ‘bone on bone pain’, when my thighbone was rubbing on my shin bone. I was given steroid treatment, jelly for lubrication and radiofrequency ablation, which is where they burn the nerves in the knee to reduce the pain.

I was put on the waiting list for a bone replacement graft, but there was a long wait for the procedure and in 2023, my consultant told me that a knee replacement was another option.

I heard about the RACER Study from a colleague and asked my consultant, who confirmed I was eligible to take part. The RACER Study was comparing knee replacement performed with a robotic arm with knee replacement performed with traditional instruments. It aimed to find out which is best at reducing pain after surgery and results in better movement, strength, and quality of life in the long-term, and whether the use of the robot is worth the additional cost.

I was invited to take part in the ‘Learning Sub-Study’ which meant I would be one of the robotic assisted surgery ‘training cases’. Each surgeon had to do up to 10 training cases before they could enrol a patient into the trial. This meant that I knew I was going to have robotic assisted surgery.

I had the necessary scans and leg measurements before my surgery, which took place in September 2023 with Professor Richard King. The day after my surgery I was out of bed using a Zimmer frame and I was using crutches a few days later. I thought I would be in a lot of pain, but on the second day after surgery I had no pain in my knee. I’m still having follow-up visits with the research team, and will be until September this year.

I can honestly say it’s the best thing I ever did! Before I was in constant pain, and now I have no pain. My recovery was really quick – I was only off work for 3 months after my surgery. We don’t know the results of the study yet, but if the study shows that robotic assisted surgery is better than standard surgery and robotic surgery becomes the norm, it could be game-changing for people like me.”