Fixing Damaged Knees

RESOURCE:http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0107-fixing_damaged_knees.htm

Harvey Saff was just one of the 15 million Americans diagnosed each year with knee osteoarthritis. He was a very committed runner when he started getting a stabbing pain in his knee. He was then diagnosed with osteoarthritis which would have the never ending side effects of pain and discomfort. The only way to relieve his pain was to get knee replacement surgery. He chose to use a resurfacing system developed by a biochemical engineering company led by Rony Abovitz. The team developed a robotic arm to resurface the knee before replacing it. They would first create a live 3D image of the patients knee to help the doctors pin point the areas of the knee which needed to be repaired. A camera then constantly updated the 3D image so the doctors operated only on the unhealthy areas while preserving the healthy regions. The system even alarmed and stopped the surgeon when they got too close to the healthy areas. Once that was done they installed the implant. Abovits developed this method so that the patients wouldn’t experience as much post surgical pain, and get back to their lives as soon as possible. This is what Harvey experienced and was very happy with the results. This is a very positive technique which I think will be used a lot more in the future. I wonder if this technique will be used to operate on other areas of the body and beyond.