Knee, a spring instead of the prosthesis: Italian challenge to the woes of the joint

Important Italian research presented at the European Congress of Amsterdam ESSKA: instead of the traditional methods, the researchers have developed a subcutaneous implant minimally invasive approach that allows you to leave intact the joint and the patient to resume a regular sports (non-competitive)

Knee

Hard yet fragile , able to bear the weight of our body and make us jump and run , but also difficult to retrieve and continuous source of pain if something gets stuck in its mechanism . The knee , according to the latest ISTAT data , is a source of problems for over two and a half million people ( 5% of the adult population and approximately 20 % of the elderly ) ; problems that often turn into endless small wayside , including surgical operations , prosthesis and subsequent waivers for primary physical activities such as walking or running, and even more to those sports .

Fortunately, the science , the front of the knee surgery , is making great strides, as confirmed by a new study everything taken care of by the Italian division of Orthopaedics and Traumatology Hospital Sacred Heart Don Calabria Negrar ( VR) . The focus of research is the KineSpring , a system that promises to revolutionize the lives of millions of people. It is a device to be applied directly on the bones of the knee, which allows you to leave intact the joint and to revive the patient made ​​a regular sports activities ( maybe not racing ) .

The device does not affect either bones or ligaments, allowing the natural movement of the knee and is able to lighten our legs a load up to 13 pounds, give pain relief for up to a threshold of 80% and recover in about movements 6 weeks. The official presentation of the study on the Italian medical device baptized KineSpring was made in Amsterdam at the European Congress Esska ( European Society of Sports Traumatology , Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy , www.esska.org ) , dedicated to surgery of the knee.

Similar to a suspension strut , implantable in less than an hour's intervention in the subcutaneous tissue of the joint without any damage to the ligaments , cartilage, and bone, and removable at any time without leaving changes , the unit was one of the novelties material presented at the conference.

The KineSpring so far has been successfully implanted in 750 people : in many cases allowed to postpone the date of implantation of the prosthesis , and many others has made it no longer necessary . Only three operated knee for the planting of small spring then had mobility problems. " The conservative therapies are not very effective for many , and too early invasive surgery - explains Claudio Zorzi, director of the division of orthopedic Sacro Cuore Don Calabria - since the prosthesis is performed more often and with good results only in sixty patients suffering from osteoarthritis at an advanced stage . "

As a treat, then, those aged between 30 and 60 years with a active lifestyle , that is, cases in which the implant can not be implanted , because maybe refused by the patient , and conservative therapies do not need ? " We must not forget - Madonna says Vincenzo , author of the study , vice president of the Committee of knee surgery and director of SIGASCOT simple structure of knee surgery of the Sacred Heart of Negrar - that to this day there is still a very active population , even beyond the 60 years old, with passions ranging from soccer to tennis , from skiing to running. This type of person often has a history of surgery in one or even both knees. Several have undergone a removal of the medial meniscus or internal , or malalignment of the lower limbs (knees in parentheses or riding ) , situations which, over the years, have caused an arthritic process in the medial compartment of the knee. it is precisely in these cases that the device becomes valuable , because the patient does not preclude the possibility of returning to practice physical activities or even sports , without of course expect miracles. performance racing are sadly forget . "

Important , according to the authors of the study, could also be the impact on the national health system, due to the possible reduction , thanks to this device , the costs for analgesic therapies and physiatric and the limitation of the high costs associated with prosthetic revision surgery , the the more probable the lower the age of first prosthesis . " The social cost of osteoarthritis is huge - concludes Zorzi - because you have to think not only to hip replacement surgery , which is necessary in the advanced stage of the disease, but the interventions of containment or control of the disease , such as drug therapy, infiltrative or rehabilitation , which often outweigh the surgical costs , with an overall cost estimated at approximately € 6.5 billion per year. "

High costs , when you consider that 30% of health care resources used today for the elderly are dedicated to this disease, and a third of them, about 10% of the total, to osteoarthritis of the knee. In 2009 there were more than 55 000 prostheses implanted in Italy (total , partial , mono and pluricompartimentali ) and the figure is rising, not to mention that there is decreasing age in which we resort to prosthetic surgery , no longer limited in patients over 60 but can already from the end of the decade of the 40 or 50 due to post-traumatic results , most of the time sports .

In detail , the device consists of two metal plates attached to each other on the femur and the tibia , so as to act as bases for anchoring a real damper , all positioned extra- articularly . The device is inserted through small incisions in the inner part of the leg , above and below the knee , and then fixed by screws to the femur and the tibia , the major bones of the upper and lower leg . The diameter is similar to that of a pen or pencil and anchorage bases are smaller than a pack of chewing gum The blood loss are negligible, we can rebuild immediately , the hospital stay is only 1-2 days and return to normal daily life happens quickly .