VISIONAIRE TOTAL KNEE ARTHROPLASTY: CANDIDATES, PROCEDURE, AND BENEFITS
If you're thinking about knee replacement surgery, it's essential you remember there are choices available. The material choices used for making your implant can have a substantial effect on the ability of your implant to resist wear.
While the choice of material for your implant is important, it's only one part of the whole equation. You see, regardless of the amount of new technology going into creating your implant, if it isn't aligned correctly within your body, there will still be a concern with implant performance and wear.
This is why Visionaire was developed.
What Is the Visionaire Total Knee Arthroplasty (Knee Replacement)?
Visionaire total knee replacement is a system that uses X-ray and MRI images to design surgical tools specifically customized for your unique knee anatomy.
Modern knee implants are designed to not only relieve pain but to function better. While various factors can impact how an implant functions or how long it lasts, aligning the implant in your body properly is important. If your implant is incorrectly positioned or misaligned, it's more likely to:
- Fail prematurely
- Function poorly
- Wear unevenly
Aligning an implant is very complex, even though it sounds simple because all patients don't have the same knee anatomy. Therefore, each implant placement is unique.
Visionaire offers an individualized solution between the accurately engineered surfaces and angles of your new implant and the unique anatomy of your body through the X-ray and MRI data of your leg and knee. Visionaire cutting guides are made to make all the necessary bone cuts for precisely placing your implant and provide you with the best possible outcome.
The surgeon uses the customized cutting blocks, constructed from medical grade Nylon-12, which match the precise outer contours and shape of your knee. The surgeon, through pre-surgical work, works with the Visionaire engineers for determining the precise angles and bone cuts needed for removing as little bone possible while they still position your implant in the right location.
This technology will potentially allow the surgeon to perform and adjust the certain knee replacement digitally several times before they make their first knee incision.
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Who Is an Ideal Candidate for the Visionaire Total Knee Arthroplasty?
The ideal candidates are:
- Individuals who haven't responded to other methods of treatment
- Individuals who have their activities restricted because of knee pain
- Individuals who can't perform daily tasks
- Individuals who suffer from persistent knee pain throughout the night or during activity
Why the Visionaire Total Knee Arthroplasty?
With a total knee replacement procedure, the surgeon positions the implant in a manner in which its metal and plastic components meet at exact angles to prevent excessive or premature implant wear and to help the knee function properly.
You can equate it to balancing your car's tires to extend tread life and improve handling. During a standard total knee replacement procedure, the surgeon will use certain cutting jigs attached to an intramedullary (IM) rod. This is a device the surgeon inserts up the length of your femur, helping to figure out the accurate knee implant alignment related to your hip joint.
Both the jigs as well as the "feel" the surgeon has become accustomed to through years spent in surgery help them to figure out where the bone needs to be removed in order to attach the implant. So you can see, once the surgeon makes a cut into the bone, they can't replace the natural bone which makes it crucial that the surgeon "measures two times and cuts once."
MRI and Its Role with the Visionaire
Since X-ray and MRI image data is used directly by Visionaire patient-matched technology to map your knee out and establish the true alignment of your body, the surgeon will already have sufficient knowledge about your knee before they even arrive in the operating room.
They'll also show up with custom cutting blocks that match your knee's exact outer contours and shape. The surgeon will work closely with Visionaire engineers during pre-surgical work to determine the precise bone angles and cuts needed for removing as little bone as they need while they still position the implant in the best location.
Benefits of the Visionaire procedure
Benefits of the Visionaire total knee procedure include:
1. Reduced Risk of Infection
The surgeon requires over 50% fewer tools to perform this procedure which substantially reduces the risk of infection. Also, eliminating the IM rod also reduces the risk of fat embolism.
2. Faster Recovery
Because the surgeon can perform minimally invasive surgery and produce less post-surgical pain and a shorter scar, it provides you with faster recovery. The customized Visionaire equipment allows the surgeon to perform a far less invasive procedure, reducing muscle damage and soft tissue damage. This too helps promote a faster recovery period.
3. More Precise Alignment
The exact knee implant alignment and placement using Visionaire technology may not just feel a bit more natural, but it can potentially last longer than traditional knee replacements. When an implant is misaligned, even slightly, it could cause uneven implant wear, loosening, and instability, contributing to early implant failure and further surgeries needed.
4. Less Pain
With minimally-invasive surgery, you might require less pain medicine for a shorter time. By decreasing the muscle damage and soft tissue damage, your scar with be smaller and you'll experience less pain during your recovery.
5. Fewer Steps in the Procedure
Since Visionaire technology eliminates several steps from the standard surgery process, you'll experience less time under anesthesia, a lower risk of infection, and potentially less blood loss.
General Considerations
A knee replacement procedure is designed for improving knee functions and relieving knee pain. But, implants might not provide the same function and feel like your natural knee. There are possible risks with a knee replacement procedure like dislocation, loosening, fracture, infection, and wear that could lead to the need for additional surgery. Implant longevity will depend on certain factors like weight and types of activities.
Don't perform high impact activities, like jumping and running, unless the surgeon tells you the activities are acceptable and your bone has healed. Breakage, early device failure, or loosening can occur if you don't follow the limitations on the activity level that the surgeon gives you. Also, early failure could occur if you don't guard the knee joint against activity level-overloading, accidents like falls, or control body weight.
In general, consulting with your doctor about minimally invasive knee replacement will center around the size of your scar. This is because the swelling is the main cause of post-surgical pain. This swelling occurs when the surgeon cuts or manipulates the soft tissue of your body.
So, when it comes to a procedure, smaller might be better. Fortunately, Visionaire patient-matched technology and other advancements in surgical instrumentation have allowed surgeons to replace total knee joints with up to 75% smaller incisions than those used previously.
Contact Coastal Orthopedics to Schedule your Visionaire Consultation
At Coastal Orthopedics, we strive to improve our patients' quality of life and that of their families. We have more than 50 years of experience. Our teams of orthopedic surgeons are considered as the best in Corpus Christi, Texas. When looking for orthopedic treatment, our Coastal Orthopedics-qualified surgeons will get you back to a pain-free daily routine in no time.
If your treatment plan involves surgery, our orthopedic surgeons will decide on which treatment plan is best for you, potentially Visionaire, and will sit down during an initial consultation to explain the entire process with you in full detail so you know exactly what to expect during your procedure and your recovery. Contact Coastal Orthopedics to schedule your Visionaire Consultation.
Addtional Information on Visionaire Procedures
THE BEST TECHNOLOGY FOR KNEE AND HIP REPLACEMENT: VERILAST WITH OXINIUM