A Kent hospital has become one of only a few UK centres to carry out an innovative bilateral knee replacement surgery using a new type of implant. A team from Benenden Hospital last week carried out the Signature procedure, which has only been used around 500 times in this country. The operation uses new surgical procedures as well as a specialised implant from Biomet UK Healthcare and can be used to replace both knees at the same time; an approach usually avoided due to the pain and discomfort associated with traditional surgery.
The team was led by Dr William Dunnet, who said: "It is quite rare for a patient to have both knee joints replaced simultaneously, but Benenden Hospital has the facilities available to carry out this innovative, technologically-advanced operation. Through use of the Signature knee system provided by Biomet, and the new technique of computerised navigation tools, the patient will have both knees replaced in only two-and-a-half hours, a fraction longer than it takes to replace one knee joint in the traditional way."
Bernard Morel from Biomet added: "This procedure creates a pre-operative plan prior to surgery, the implant can be more accurately positioned, and the operation is less invasive. Patients' shapes differ on the inside as much as they do on the outside and through the use of magnetic resonance imaging, we create a three-dimensional joint reconstruction. There are 90 different size combinations available, meaning we create a personalised positioning guide for total knee replacement."
