The Jury’s Out: Impact on the Healthcare System

In the ECRI report, two manufacturers shared the list price of patient-specific templates for knee replacements. DePuy Orthopaedics charges $1,950 for the tibial and femoral TruMatch block set.¹⁰ Wright Medical Technology charges $1,500 per set of Prophecy guides.¹¹ The real test will be determined when clinical studies answer questions about cost savings for PST. Expect these answers to take a while. The ECRI Institute report identified 15 ongoing trials of PST and detailed eight studies enrolling at least 100 patients.

References

1. Hohler SE. Total knee arthroplasty: past successes and current improvements. AORN J 2008 Jan; 87(1):143- 58;
2. Ng VY, McShane MA. Patient-specific knee instrumentation. In: eMedicine http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1995729-overview
3. www.ecri.org/Documents/Sample_Reports/Emerging_Technology_Report.pdf
4. www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhds/4procedures/2010pro4_numberrate.pdf
5. Kurtz S, Ong K, Lau E, Mowat F, Halpern M. Projections of primary and revision hip and knee arthroplasty in the United States from 2005 to 2030. J Bone Joint Surg Am 2007 Apr; 89(4):780-5
6. Ng VY, Declaire JH, Berend KR, Gulick BC, Lombardi AV Jr. Improved accuracy of alignment with patient-specific positioning guides compared with manual instrumentation in TKA. Clin Orthop Relat Res 2012 Jan; 470(1): 99-107.
7. Ibid
8. Leopold SS. Minimally invasive total knee arthroplasty for osteoarthritis. N Engl J Med 2009 Apr 23; 360(17): 1749-58
9. Mont MA, Johnson AJ, Zywiel MG, Bonutti PM. Surgeon perceptions regarding custom-fit positioning technology for total knee arthroplasty. Surg Technol Int 2010; 20: 348-51
10. Lee K. (DePuy Orthopaedics Inc.). Total knee replacement using patient-specific templates external review. 2011 Nov 21
11. Carroll M, Obert R. (Wright Medical Technology Inc.). Total knee replacement using patient-specific templates external review. 2011 Nov 2