Soft tissue balancing through computer navigation in total knee replacement surgery (TKR) has revolutionized lives of patients undergoing knee replacement restoring normal biomechanics of the knee.Dr Harsimran Singh, the Director of Joint Replacement at Fortis Hospital, Mohali, said Knee Replacement Surgery has seen commendable advances in terms of surgical techniques and the quality of knee implants. The Fortis surgeon was recently honoured by the Managing Director of B. Braun Medical India Pvt. Ltd, Anand Apte, for performing the highest number of navigated computer assisted total knee replacement surgeries in India.
“The currently available Zirconium coated knee implants have shown to have a life in excess of 30-35 years in lab studies. The benefits of modern implants are supplemented by the accuracy in surgical technique provided by Computer Navigation. Computer navigated total knee surgery leaves no margin for error, which is always present in conventional surgical technique,” Dr Harsimran shared.He elaborated: “Computer assisted knee surgery uses a computer software program to calculate angles of knee, enabling the surgeon to conduct surgery with greater accuracy and precision of the tune of 1mm variation.”
He further added that the current principle in knee replacement surgery is to re-surface just the damaged portion of the knee and avoid replacing the entire knee in cases where only a limited portion of the joint is diseased. Hence, people who have partial knee arthritis are treated by Unicompartmental (Partial) Knee Replacement.
Patient requiring TKR are given the benefit of ligament preserving surgery wherein an attempt is made to preserve as much of the normal knee ligaments available. This makes the surgery painless, bloodless and offers fast recovery with little need of physiotherapy. Due to smaller incision there is minimal trauma to the soft tissues, muscles and tendons. All this helps in faster recovery and patient bounces back to his or her daily routine comfortably. It helps in soft tissue balancing which results in perfect knee bending. Most patients can now comfortably sit cross legged after knee replacement surgery.
Dr Harsimran Singh was honored for performing highest number of navigated (computer assisted) total knee replacement surgeries. He has performed more than 5,000 cases of Columbus Knee with computer assisted surgery. It is highest number of computer assisted joints done by any surgeon in India.
Highlights:
Arthritis is a widespread problem throughout world with many people experiencing some form of the disease or other.Every three people, out of five in 65-years age group, are victim to arthritis and the ailment now even targets youth. Around 200 kind of arthritis are reported in the world and at the same time new technologies are being developed to treat it.