Growing knee implant

2000/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

Children are a special challenge for those working on implant development, as the implant must adapt to the growing body.

A team of researchers at the University of Vienna has resisted the challenge and developed a knee implant that adapts to the new measure as the child grows. The implant works for those who have lost the bone mass of the knee due to tumors. They have been tested with 13 patients and the results have been satisfactory. When bending the knee, the implant mechanism is launched, causing millimetric movements (see figure) and modifying the size of the implant. The implant measurement change is almost capable of simulating normal growth.

Thanks to this technique it has been possible to reduce the number of interventions that the child must endure - until now the implants were stretched by hand and the operations were inevitable - and avoid postoperative problems such as scars that can limit the movement of the knee.