SCHENECTADY — Ellis Hospital is the first in upstate New York to begin using a robotic device for spinal surgery, officials announced Tuesday.

Pioneering the device are board-certified physicians Brian Gordon and Frank Genovese, partners in New York Spine & Neurosurgery. Gordon, an orthopedic surgeon with a speciality in spinal procedures, and Genovese, a neurosurgeon, used the device for the first time Friday on Kim O’Donnell of Gloversville.

The doctors are working with the Cleveland Clinic to develop additional surgical procedures and equipment designs for the device, called SpineAssist.

Nancy Sousa, of device manufacturer Mazur Surgical Technologies, said 13 hospitals in the United States are using the device. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved use of the miniature robot last year for lumbar and thoracic spinal procedures. The device is in clinical trials for cervical spinal surgery.

“With the device, we are able to minimize patient exposure to radiation, danger and pain and to increase the accuracy of the procedure,” Gordon said.

SpineAssist offers accuracy to within the width a human hair for the placement of implants into spinal bone. Accuracy is important as the area is packed with nerve roots and major blood vessels.

“We are targeting an area the size of a pinkie with little room for error,” Genovese said.

SpineAssist is a soda can-sized device that attaches to the patient’s spine during the surgery. Using X-rays like maps, it guides surgeons to the precise location for insertion of screws and other implants.

“This is true robotics,” Gordon said.

The robot follows a pre-surgical plan based on a computerized tomography image of the patient’s spine. A second X-ray is taken during surgery to ensure additional accuracy.

With the robot, the procedure requires fewer X-rays and a smaller incision. Under conventional surgery, doctors take 20 or more X-rays to ensure accuracy, which increases radiation exposure. They also make a longer incision — 7 inches versus 2 inches — and perform the alignment freehand.

“The accuracy will allow us to do surgeries we didn’t have access to before, due to the potential for nerve damage,” Genovese said.

O’Donnell said she thought the surgery went well for her. “It was great. I think if it had been the other way, it would have been sorer,” she said. “I think it is going to be a success.”

In O’Donnell’s procedure, doctors replaced two herniated discs and put in pins, screws and a plate.