05.20.14
OrthAlign Inc. has launched a new portal, called OrthAlign Academy, on its website dedicated to educating surgeons and hospital staff on the use of KneeAlign technology for total knee arthroplasty (TKA) surgeries.
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 is fast, simple, and easy to use, but it’s important for surgeons to know how the technology works and to receive proper training for optimized use in the OR,” said David J. Mayman, M.D., education chairman of OrthAlign Academy and clinical co-director of the Computer Assisted Surgery Center, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY. “OrthAlign Academy will be an excellent resource for surgeons and hospital staff to learn all there is to know about OrthAlign technology.”
In a recent U.S. study by Denis Nam, M.D. (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 percent of tibial components were within 2 degrees of perpendicular to the tibial mechanical axis and 95 percent of tibial components were within 2 degrees of a 3 degree posterior slope (compared to 68.1 percent and 72.1 percent 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 Nam, significant differences favoring the use of KneeAlign vs. CAS were found with regard to the accuracy of femoral component alignment, with 94.9 percent of patients in the KneeAlign cohort having an alignment within 2 degrees of neutral vs. 92.5 percent in the CAS cohort. There was also a significant difference in overall mechanical alignment of the limb, with 92.5 percent of patients within 3° of a neutral mechanical axis in the KneeAlign cohort vs. 86.3 percent in the CAS cohort. There was no statistically significant difference in tibial component alignment.
“As more surgeons and hospital staff are adopting OrthAlign technology into their surgeries, we felt it was important to invest in education resources and make them easily accessible for the community,” said James Young Kim, OrthAlign’s vice president of marketing. “We are thrilled to be partnering with several top surgeons using OrthAlign to develop tools and programs that will provide necessary insights in optimizing the use of our technology. Ultimately, we hope that our technology and our focus on properly educating surgeons on how to use it helps to raise the standard of care for TKAs.”
OrthAlign makes surgical navigation products for precise alignment and is based in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
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 is fast, simple, and easy to use, but it’s important for surgeons to know how the technology works and to receive proper training for optimized use in the OR,” said David J. Mayman, M.D., education chairman of OrthAlign Academy and clinical co-director of the Computer Assisted Surgery Center, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY. “OrthAlign Academy will be an excellent resource for surgeons and hospital staff to learn all there is to know about OrthAlign technology.”
In a recent U.S. study by Denis Nam, M.D. (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 percent of tibial components were within 2 degrees of perpendicular to the tibial mechanical axis and 95 percent of tibial components were within 2 degrees of a 3 degree posterior slope (compared to 68.1 percent and 72.1 percent 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 Nam, significant differences favoring the use of KneeAlign vs. CAS were found with regard to the accuracy of femoral component alignment, with 94.9 percent of patients in the KneeAlign cohort having an alignment within 2 degrees of neutral vs. 92.5 percent in the CAS cohort. There was also a significant difference in overall mechanical alignment of the limb, with 92.5 percent of patients within 3° of a neutral mechanical axis in the KneeAlign cohort vs. 86.3 percent in the CAS cohort. There was no statistically significant difference in tibial component alignment.
“As more surgeons and hospital staff are adopting OrthAlign technology into their surgeries, we felt it was important to invest in education resources and make them easily accessible for the community,” said James Young Kim, OrthAlign’s vice president of marketing. “We are thrilled to be partnering with several top surgeons using OrthAlign to develop tools and programs that will provide necessary insights in optimizing the use of our technology. Ultimately, we hope that our technology and our focus on properly educating surgeons on how to use it helps to raise the standard of care for TKAs.”
OrthAlign makes surgical navigation products for precise alignment and is based in Aliso Viejo, Calif.