New knee replacement joints designed for women
Story By: Bea Karnes
Source: NBC
In 2005, 335,000 women had knee replacement surgery, almost double the number of men.
Women have a larger Q angle and men have a larger patella on their knees, so doctors have designed female-friendly knee replacements.
"My biggest concern was would I be able to dance like I used to?" patient Ernestine Banks said. Banks was once a go-go girl at the Wreck Bar in the Castaways Hotel. She said her new knee hasn't slowed her down. "Oh yeah, I've been dancing a lot," she said.
Banks also rides motorcycles with the Black Divas on Wheels. "I was happy about the fact that I would have a knee especially for women," Banks said.
The Zimmer Gender Solutions Knee is slightly thinner and narrower, claiming to offer women a better fit.
"Traditionally, there was sort of a one-size-fits-all concept to have all knees sort of fit everybody, and they actually chose a masculine knee shape," said orthopedic surgeon Dr. Marc Umlas of the Mount Sinai Medical Center. When a male knee shape is used to replace a female knee, Umlas said the replacement hangs over the bone and doesn't fit.
"The hope is that, by putting the correct knee shape on the correctly shaped knee, that will result in more normal function and have better response of the patient," Umlas said. Proper placement and alignment are crucial to the success of the surgery, Umlas said.
"I do know that there's been studies recently that have shown women after knee replacements haven't traditionally done as well as men with knee replacements. I think this is one of the things they are trying to do to address that," he said.
A female implant doesn't look dramatically different, and some doctors questioned if it's just a trend. However, for Banks, it's made a big difference in her life.
"There's no pain like I used to have. "There's no swelling or any of that stuff anymore," she said.
Gender specific implants are so new that there are no studies looking at how they impact the long-term success rates of knee replacements.
