Cutting-Edge Knee-Replacement Gadgets

Medicine is ever advancing - and that includes orthopedic medicine, which has now developed gender-specific artificial knees that match the subtle anatomical differences between men and women. Technicians have also produced a computer program to assist orthopedic surgeons in correctly positioning replacement knees. These two elements - gender-specificity and computer-navigated surgery - are being hotly discussed these days whenever orthopedic surgeons come together in professional gatherings.

- Cutting-Edge Knee-Replacement Gadgets video

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Young Athletes Avoid Injuries With Warm-up Routines

A simple set of new warm-up exercises provides young athletes considerable protection against season-ending knee injuries, according to a recent sports-medicine study. The findings, presented by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, were published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. (Read more about Young Athletes Avoid Injuries With Warm-up Routines)

- Young Athletes Avoid Injuries With Warm-up Routines video

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New Bone-Marrow-Cell Therapy Aids Spine Repair

Injecting a patient’s own bone-marrow stem cells into the spine using multiple routes helps to restore some function and quality of life to victims of spinal cord injury with no objectionable side effects, a recent study revealed.
   
The findings, published in the journal Cell Transplantation, were the result of a joint investigation by researchers at DaVinci Biosciences of Costa Mesa, Calif., and Hospital Luis Vernaza in Ecuador.

- New Bone-Marrow-Cell Therapy Aids Spine Repair video

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Surgery Reliably Repairs Torn Rotator Cuffs

People who received surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff experienced good shoulder function and relief from pain over the long term, even after the recurrence of a tear, a recent small study demonstrated. A rotator cuff is a group of four muscles and their tendons that stabilize the shoulder. (Read more about Surgery Reliably Repairs Torn Rotator Cuffs)

- Surgery Reliably Repairs Torn Rotator Cuffs video

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Metal-Particle Inflammation Causes Joint-Implant Failure

The very joint implants that bring pain relief and restore freedom of motion to patients’ extremities can be their own undoing, setting off a metal-induced immunological defense mechanism that causes the implants to loosen and fail, according to a recent study.
   
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and to be published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, was conducted by researchers at Rush University Medical Center. It won an award for scientific merit from the Orthopaedic Research Society.

- Metal-Particle Inflammation Causes Joint-Implant Failure video

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Age Dropping for Arthritis Onset

Arthritis, which affects nearly 80 percent of Americans at some point in their lives, is usually thought of as a disorder afflicting mainly older people. But doctors have been seeing it cropping up in younger and younger people.

“We don’t really know why, but we’re seeing an epidemic of patients with wearing out of joints in their 40s and even late 30s,” said Barry Waldman, director of the Center for Joint Preservation and Replacement at the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Md. Despite this trend, Waldman says, diet and exercise can be effectively used to treat and beat the disease.

- Age Dropping for Arthritis Onset video

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Hip Replacements Fail Due to Implant Irregularities, Infection

Contrary to conventional wisdom, total hip replacements fail just as much, if not more so, from implant dislocation or infection than from the wearing out of the bearing surface, according to recent research.

While many thousands of people experiencing extreme pain from debilitating hip disease and other hip problems are helped each year with hip replacements that provide long-term relief, the study in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery said not much information previously existed about why some hip replacements fail among Americans. (Read more about Hip Replacements Fail Due to Implant Irregularities, Infection)

- Hip Replacements Fail Due to Implant Irregularities, Infection video

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The Shoulder and Its Many Sources of Pain

With all the extraordinary array of muscles, bones, ligaments and nerves that cluster in the shoulder, it's sometimes called the "spaghetti junction" of our bodies.

And with this dizzying array of layered elements, it's not surprising that the shoulder is prone to many pains that may have causes as diverse as poor posture, stress, psychological problems, computer overuse, playing tennis and lifting and carrying heavy objects. Not to mention that this 10-pound thing called a head must be supported by the relatively slender neck, which may produce strains in the neck area that will in all likelihood spread to the shoulders. (Read more about The Shoulder and Its Many Sources of Pain)

- The Shoulder and Its Many Sources of Pain video

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Cartilage Transplants Help Repair Shoulder Joints

Doctors are finally beginning to use cartilage transplants to fix damaged shoulder joints instead of relying on arthroscopic surgery or impermanent implants to do the job. But only a few hospitals nationwide have taken up the practice.

"For a long time, surgeons have been looking for an alternative to joint replacement that is more effective than simply cleaning out the joint arthroscopically," said Brian Cole, an orthopedic surgeon at Rush University Medical Center, in Illinois, who specializes in cartilage restoration of the joints. "In cartilage restoration, we regrow fresh tissue or use donated tissue. It's an exciting and promising new treatment for damaged joints, now including the shoulder." (Read more about Cartilage Transplants Help Repair Shoulder Joints)

- Cartilage Transplants Help Repair Shoulder Joints video

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One-Sixth of Knee Cartilage Treatments Need Redoing

More than one in six patients who receive an implant of their own tissue to repair knee cartilage damage must undergo repeat surgery, a recent study found. Doctors conduct the well-established surgical procedure, known as autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI), by removing cartilage cells from the patient, growing them in the lab and then grafting the new tissue into the patient's injured knee.

- One-Sixth of Knee Cartilage Treatments Need Redoing video

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