LONDON, United Kingdom, Oct. 7, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - OrthAlign, Inc., a privately held U.S. based medical device company, debuted its KneeAlign® technology today in the United Kingdom at the London Knee Meeting.
KneeAlign provides both tibial and femoral navigation in a simple, palm-sized, single-use device and is compatible with all implant systems. It is highly accurate for overall mechanical, tibial, and femoral component alignment in TKA, comparing favorably to large-console Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) systems. KneeAlign has been used in over 18,000 cases, worldwide.
Edwin P. Su, MD (Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY), who presented OrthAlign's TKA technology from podium at the London Knee Meeting, shared, "KneeAlign is fast, simple, and easy to use. I believe OrthAlign's handheld precision alignment technology helps bring all the good of navigation into the reach of many surgeons, providing precision and real-time data without the added complexity and exorbitant cost of computer assisted surgery systems or patient cutting blocks. It's hard to imagine life in the OR now, without it. I think surgeons here in the UK will have the same experience".
In a recent U.S. study ("Extramedullary Guides versus Portable, Accelerometer-Based Navigation for Tibial Alignment in Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Randomized Controlled Study", The Journal of Arthroplasty, June 5, 2013) by Denis Nam, MD (Washington University, St. Louis, MO), it was found that KneeAlign decreases the incidence of outliers for tibial component alignment in both the coronal and sagittal planes, and improves the surgeon's ability to achieve a specific, intraoperative goal, compared to conventional, tibial extramedullary (EM) alignment guides in TKA. In the KneeAlign cohort, 95.7% of tibial components were within 2° of perpendicular to the tibial mechanical axis and 95% of tibial components were within 2° of a 3° posterior slope (compared to 68.1% and 72.1% in the EM cohort, respectively). This study was conducted as a randomized control trial, consisting of five different surgeons.
In another U.S. study by Dr. Nam ("Accelerometer-Based, Portable Navigation vs. Imageless, Large Console Computer-Assisted Navigation in Total Knee Arthroplasty", The Journal of Arthroplasty, April 17, 2012), significant differences favoring the use of KneeAlign vs. CAS were found with regard to the accuracy of femoral component alignment, with 94.9% of patients in the KneeAlign cohort having an alignment within 2° of neutral vs. 92.5% in the CAS cohort. There was also a significant difference in overall mechanical alignment of the limb, with 92.5% of patients within 3° of a neutral mechanical axis in the KneeAlign cohort vs. 86.3% in the CAS cohort. There was no statistically significant difference in tibial component alignment.
"As we continue building on our international growth strategy, we believe the UK surgeon community is poised to embrace OrthAlign technology," said James Young Kim, OrthAlign's Vice President of Marketing. "More than 70,000 knee replacements are performed in England and Wales each year, and the number is growing at a rapid rate. Competition amongst implant companies proves to be increasingly fierce, but the UK orthopaedic market confirms that the future for TKAs lies in technology that improves results, promotes consistency, reduces operating time, decreases patient hospital stays, and reduces patient pain. Ultimately, we hope that our technology helps raise the standard of care for TKAs in the UK."
About OrthAlign, Inc.
OrthAlign is a privately held, U.S. based, medical device company committed to providing orthopedic surgeons with user-friendly, cost-effective, precision alignment technology and products. We believe that our technology raises the standard of care in Total Knee and Total Hip Arthroplasty surgeries by making consistent and measurable results accessible to all surgeons, hospitals, and patients. Our strategy is to leverage this technology to provide simple and precise alignment solutions for a broad range of orthopedic procedures. For more information regarding OrthAlign, please visit http://www.orthalign.com.
"ORTHALIGN®, ORTHALIGN PLUS®, KNEEALIGN® are [registered] trademarks of OrthAlign, Inc."
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