HEALTH
JOINT ENDEAVOR
Surgeon Edward Rossario of Coastal Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine checks the flexion of Henry Szmyt’s knee after double knee replacement surgery.
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ED DRONDOSKI PHOTOS
Surgical procedure fits a custom-made
knee implant to the patient
BY PATTIE DURHAM
Surgery with less cutting, less stripping, less blood loss,
a shorter hospital stay and a quicker recovery — what
patient or doctor wouldn’t want this?
Created by ConforMIS, the state-of-the-art knee
implant used by Dr. Edward Rossario has eased the pain of
replacement for many with damaged knees.
“I did the research and the science was there,” he explained.
“I said to myself, ‘Maybe there is something to this.’ I had
about an 88 percent rate of satisfaction with my knee replacement
patients, but I wanted to get to 100 percent. With ConforMIS,
my rate has gone from 88 to 98 percent satisfaction.
“Every surgeon wants all of the patients to be satisfied with
their procedure.”
Rather than a stock off-the-shelf knee, which comes in sizes
like small, medium and large, the pieces to be replaced in the
knee are made to measure from a CT scan of the patient’s leg
from hip to ankle. The full scan allows the parts to be sized to
straighten the leg.
MORE CUTTING
The problem with the stock knee replacements, the Port St.
Lucie surgeon said, is that there had to be a lot more cutting
to fit the replacement to the patient’s anatomy. Sometimes,
he said, they are a bit too big and sometimes a bit too small.
There are not unlimited sizes. With ConforMIS, which is designed
to fit exactly to the patient’s anatomy, there is a bit less
time in the operating room with the saw and drill.
The implant is “the only implant that respects the patient’s >>