Now, a knee replacement implant that is Asia-specific

CHANDIGARH - A knee-joint replacement implant specifically designed for the Asian population was launched by a German company here Monday.

Vincent Marie, chief designer of the knee replacement implant, explained that the implant has been made keeping in mind the basic difference in the bone structure of the western and Asian people.

“The medio-lateral dimension of the knee joint in the western population is significantly more than their Asian counterparts,” Marie said.

“Since most of the knee replacement implants so far have been designed according to the anthropological measurements of western people, these implants tend to mismatch by some degree when used in Indian patients,” he explained.

Marie said that the bones of Indian people are narrower compared to the conventional knee implants.

The ‘Columbus Narrow’ knee implant is a modification of the highly successful high-flex Columbus implant that has been designed keeping the bone structure of Indian patients in mind, he said.

He said the company selected Punjab for the launch because there is more demand for an appropriate knee joint replacement implant in the state.

Harsimran Singh, joint replacement surgeon at Fortis Hospital, Mohali, said that this design was long awaited by the orthopaedic fraternity in India.

“Columbus-Narrow holds the promise to further improve the results of joint replacement in India. It has been designed with the experience of computer assisted navigation system. It would ensure least amount of soft tissue irritation and hence pain-free movement of the knee joint after surgery,” Singh said.