Shanghai, China – From August 24 to August 26, MicroPort® Orthopedics invited Professor Geoffrey Dervin, the Orthopedic Director of Affiliated of Hospital University of Ottawa, for the Medial Pivot Knee System Roadshow activities held in four provinces of China - Hangzhou, Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Beijing. The roadshow activities, consisting of live surgery demonstrations and well-prepared lectures, aimed at helping orthopedic surgeons to get a deeper understanding in the cutting-edge technologies and development trend of total knee replacement. A great many of the domestic and overseas orthopedic experts were attracted to participate in the event.
On August 24, Professor Dervin performed a surgery in PLA 117 Hospital in Hangzhou Province to treat a patient with genu valgum. Genu valgum is rarely occurred in osteoarthritis and knee deformity, and it is more challenging to use medial pivot knee to treat genu valgum compared to general knee joint diseases. Professor Dervin checked the patient's pre-operative knee X-ray, joint function restriction, and medical history, and then comforted the patient that his knee function would soon be restored after the surgery. During the surgery, Professor Dervin discussed with the experts of PLA 117 Hospital regarding soft tissue releasing and balancing, osteotomy, pain management, and post-operative recovery of the valgus deformity. The surgery lasted for 50 minutes and achieved successful result. Professor Dervin said he will follow up the patient to check the post-operative recovery.
On August 24, Professor Dervin attended the Shanghai Orthopedic Surgery Salon which gathered top joint replacement surgeons and outstanding young surgeons in Shanghai to exchange ideas on hot issues of knee replacement field. The salon was chaired by Professor Haishan Wu of Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, who is also the Chairman of Knee Surgery Branch of Chinese Orthopaedic Association. Professor Zhenjun Yao of Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University delivered the opening speech, saying: "Though medial pivot knee design is a relatively new philosophy in China, MicroPort® Orthopedics' Medial Pivot Knee has almost 20 years' clinical history since the launch of ADVANCE® Medial Pivot Knee System in 1998 with excellent clinical outcome at 17 years." Professor Wu said: "Total knee replacement surgery has around 20 years' development history in China. Chinese surgeons have achieved remarkable progress in this field but we still need to learn from the advanced clinical technologies in Western countries. For instance, in total knee replacement, it is reported that around 20% of patients are not satisfied with the postoperative outcome. We hope this salon will provide attendees with advanced theories and technologies of knee replacement."
During the salon, Professor Dervin gave a lecture on "the design rationale of medial pivot knee and gait analysis" to attendees with the focus of knee biomechanics. Nowadays, patients expect far more than pain relief from a joint surgery. As the patients are getting younger, joint function recovery and life quality improvement are becoming increasingly important for total knee arthroplasty ("TKA") surgeries. Orthopedic scholars have always been divided on knee biomechanics. The idea about how the knee moves, especially that before and after TKA procedure, will greatly impact the post-operative experience of the patient, and largely determines the outcome of a TKA procedure. Professor Dervin analyzed in detail the muscle activity of patients' daily life such as walking up and down stairs after their TKA procedures respectively with medial pivot knee and PS implant. He pointed out, according to research findings, when doing the same movement of stairs ascent, patients with medial pivot knees consume only a bit more muscle strength than people with a healthy knee, but much less than patients with traditional PS implants. It means that the efficiency of quadriceps femoris muscle of patients with medial pivot knees is significantly improved compared to that of patients with traditional PS implants, which would largely result in patient satisfaction. Afterwards, Professor Jianmin Feng and Zhihong Liu of Ruijin Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University shared the clinical experience in using medial pivot knee. They spoke highly of the stability, bone preservation, and patellofemoral joint design of the medial pivot knee, and they raised questions about how to use medial pivot knee to balance medial and lateral soft tissue. During the free talk session, experts in attendance shared their opinion on the medial pivot knee and showed recognition on its design rationale and clinical outcome.
On August 25, Professor Dervin attended the training course in Henan Provincial People's Hospital. The course was chaired by Professor Jia Zheng of Henan Provincial People's Hospital. It contained two live surgeries of medial pivot total knee replacement and was live broadcasted by Internet. Before the live surgeries, Professor Dervin explained the design concept of medial pivot knee in terms of knee biomechanics researches and his clinical experience. He said: "In a normal knee, the medial compartment moves less than the lateral compartment in knee flexion and the mobility of the lateral compartment makes the femoral rotation in knee flexion. In this sense, biomechanics of knee flexion has two features – rollback and medial pivot. The medial pivot knee is designed just based on such theories." During the live surgeries, Professor Dervin explained every step of the surgery, especially soft tissue balancing, and shared his personal experience in using medial pivot knee. The medial pivot knee implants do not require absolute balance of the medial and lateral collateral ligament, and stable medial collateral ligament and stretching lateral collateral ligament can deliver satisfying result for patients. It means that surgical technique of medial pivot knee is easier to master compared to other similar products. This live broadcasting attracted more than 1,300 people to watch online including surgeons located in Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Zhejiang, Henan provinces, as well as Canada and Singapore. The audience also participated in discussion with the faculty, to jointly promote the advancement of orthopedic theories.
In the end, Professor Dervin attended Beijing International Unicompartmental Symposium at the invitation of China-Japan Friendship Hospital. During the meeting, Professor Dervin said that he paid special attention on the fast recovery concept and is dedicated to the same-day discharge after total knee replacement and unicompartmental replacement. He said, this concept can only be achieved by the right implant, the appropriate approach, and the cooperation of the whole medical team. At the same time, both medial pivot knee and unicompartmental implant are designed based on the philosophy of fast postoperative recovery and life quality improvement to benefit patients.
The key to a successful total knee replacement is patient satisfaction which results from prosthesis stability and function recovery such as going up and down stairs and walking on flat ground. This roadshow of medial pivot total knee replacement system allowed more domestic and overseas surgeons to understand the importance of medial pivot knee in total knee replacement as well as the excellent performance of MicroPort® Orthopedics' EVOLUTION® Medial Pivot Total Knee System. Up to date, over 550,000 MicroPort® Orthopedics' Medial Pivot Knees have been implanted globally. According to a study evaluating long-term clinical and radiographic outcomes of the medial pivot knee system published in The Knee, the results demonstrate excellent clinical outcomes for both satisfaction (95%) and survivorship (98.8%) at 17 years with patients noting a great sense of stability and comfort during regular activities. Zixin Weng, President of MicroPort® Orthopedics China, said: "We will continue to host academic activities to provide a platform for domestic and overseas knee replacement experts to exchange ideas, so as to help promote the development of China's joint surgery industry and provide patients with better orthopedic solutions."