Saturday, October 25, 2008

Ankle Replacement - 2nd Generation

Today I am going to discuss about some the 2nd generation of Ankle Prosthesis (Implant). As I mentioned in the previous post, the 1st generation of ankle Prosthesis was a failure. Lack of natural anatomy through the usage of the 1st generation designs was the reason of the failure. This makes people rely more on the fusion (arthrodesis) even though it cost them to lose their normal movements.

Patients want to stop themselves from continue to suffer from the pain caused by the broken articular surface in their ankle joint. As long as they didn’t suffer from the pain, it is okay for them to lose their normal movements. This situation happens because there is no other option for them.

Thanks to the continuous study made by the people who want to improve the problems from the 1st generation ankle prosthesis, 2nd generation designs come out. This time, it is more anatomy friendly and allows patients to get their normal movements back while stopping the pain in the joint. It is same as they get new ankle to replace their old one.

The founding of this 2nd design makes arthrodesis become last choice for anyone who suffer ankle joint problems. It is not that this 2nd design doesn’t have any weaknesses. These designs were still in study process and are new compared to hip and knee prosthesis. Thus, continuous study is still under progress. As until today, there are no massive reports showing that these 2nd (can be considered as New Design) generation designs are not good. Most of the patients will choose Total Ankle Replacement as their method of recovering.

Talking about the technical stuffs of this 2nd generation design of ankle prosthesis, it uses mobile bearing concept. This is something totally different from the 1st generation concept as it only using 2 part ankle prosthesis. Mobile bearing concept is using 3 part ankle prosthesis which allow normal ankle movements. For your information, our ankle joint can do at least 3 type of movements which result in complex anatomy. If the implant does not support either one of these movements, broke down of the joint functions and implant may happen. 2 parts ankle prosthesis is hardly manage to support all these movements of ankle joint. We will see why is the mobile bearing implant can easily support of the ankle joint movements compared to the compared to the 2 parts ankle prosthesis later in the next post.

Until then, all the best to you. Knowledge is treasure, you have to search for it. This blog is one of them. Stay tuned and enjoy.. =)

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