Yunnan, China, 15 January 2022 – Suzhou Minimally Invasive Orthopedics (Group) Co., Ltd. (MicroPort® Orthopedics China) has developed a “personalized and precise” wrist joint prosthesis, which was recently used during a wrist joint replacement surgery at the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedics of 920 Hospital. Following the surgery, led by Professor Yongqing Xu, the patient was able to rotate his wrist as normal for the first time in 18 years. As a wrist prosthesis perfectly matching the patient’s condition, this product from MicroPort® Orthopedics China has already benefitted dozens of patients living with wrist deformities.
Following a wrist injury 18-years ago, the patient was not treated properly, which resulted in years of suffering. The patient’s wrist was unable to move due to severe deformity of both rows of wrist bones, as well as missing wrist bones and soft tissues in poor condition. To address this complicated situation, Prof. Yongqing Xu's team decided to perform the surgery using a custom-made artificial wrist prosthesis from MicroPort® Orthopedics China, which had a 3D-printed trabecular structure of good osseointegration performance at the bone-implant interface to facilitate the patient's post-operative rehabilitation and long-term stability of wrist function.
Thanks to Professor Yongqing Xu's precise soft tissue repair techniques and the stable performance of MicroPort® custom-made wrist prosthesis, the surgery was successfully completed and the patient is now regaining regular wrist function, performing activities such as griping corns.
Professor Yongqing Xu commented, "The surgery went well and it is expected that this patient will be able to resume all types of daily activities after a full post-operative recovery. The use of a wrist prosthesis tailored to the patient’s physiological characteristics and lifestyle, along with customized surgical tools, will not only help to ensure smooth surgical performance, but also reduce post-surgical complications such as infection for the patient’s better recovery.”
Compared with large joint prostheses used for hip and knee replacement, it is more difficult to develop prostheses for small joint areas, such as the wrist. The wrist joint consists of the radial carpal joint, the midcarpal joint, and the metacarpophalangeal joint, all of which are small in size, complex in adjacent relationships and surrounding soft tissue structure, and so it requires a high degree of precision for daily rotation and flexion/extension movements. Therefore, the development of a prosthesis that conforms to the normal structure of the wrist joint is extremely challenging in terms of prosthetic material and prosthetic structure design.
The more mature wrist replacement prostheses are generally designed to replace the radial carpal joint, which can improve the function of the radial carpal area. However, the function of the wrist joint is mainly concentrated in the mid-wrist joint, which is most closely related to human movement. The prosthetic solution to replace the midcarpal joint is more complex, but more patient friendly. Under current objective conditions, however, most patients with wrist problems in China can only use conservative or fusion treatment, which cannot help achieve complete restoration of their wrist functions.
According to Mr. Zixin Weng, President of MicroPort® Orthopedics China, commented, “We are committed to becoming a trusted partner for medical professionals, helping patients regain normal joint mobility through in-depth collaboration with physicians. The development and clinical application of our new endeavor this time once again demonstrates MicroPort® Orthopedics’ strength in R&D to deal with various complex and difficult cases, as well as our technology reserve to provide personalized and precise products. Based on clinical needs, MicroPort® Orthopedics will continue to introduce new treatment solutions and innovative products, and provide more comprehensive orthopedic medical total solutions for patients around the world."
Since June 2020, MicroPort® Orthopedics China has been working with Professor Yongqing Xu’s team on a wrist joint prosthesis clinical research project. The prosthesis developed by them can reconstruct the function of the most important mid-wrist joint. Through patient anatomical data reconstruction, personalized wrist joint design, medical-industrial collaboration, 3D printing technology and traditional processing methods, different prostheses can be "customized" for patients. To date, dozens of wrist prostheses from MicroPort® Orthopedics China have been used clinically. With the accumulation of Chinese people’s wrist joint anatomical data, MicroPort® Orthopedics China is updating its clinical research on customized wrist prostheses that better fit the anatomical structure of Chinese patients.