Dr. Smith says the lifestyle of Asians makes special demands on the knee joints
Most of the commercially available totally knee arthoplasty (TKA) implants are designed according to the anthropometrics (measurement of human individuals) of Caucasian (white) people, but the knees of the Asian races are different said South African based knee and hip replacement expert Rob McLennan Smith. Using such implants was causing problems for Asians and Indians also, he said.
Talking to The Hindu, Dr Smith, who came to supervise the knee joint replacement using the Anthem Global knee which catered to racial anthropometric differences at the Manipal Hospitals here on Friday, said that the ‘lower extremity’ (technical name) of the thigh bone (femur) was comparatively narrow in Asians and so was the ‘upper extremity’ of the tibia (shin bone).
The sizes of the thigh and shin bones of African and Afro-American were similar to that of the Caucasians, he said.
With suitable implants recipients were able to bend their knees by an additional 15 degrees, Dr Smith said.
The lifestyles and religious practices of Asians made special demands on the knee joints.
People had to sit on their hunches or with their legs crossed to offer prayers and unless suitable implants were used there would be pain and complications, Dr Smith said.
Dr Smith said efforts were being made to reduce the cost of knee replacement procedures.
Seven to eight trays of instruments have to be sanitised and that cost of sanitising itself was huge, he said.
The number of instruments used in the global knee system was also less, he added.
Dr Smith is currently the president of the South Africa Arthroplasty Association.
Manipal Hospitals knee replacement specialists Nallamothu Jagadeesh said that knee replacement using Anthem system had been done today for the first time in the Telugu States.
Clinical services chief Manoj Kumar was present.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – November 12th, 2016