LONDON, Dec. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN, NYSE: SNN), the global medical technology business, today announces an extension to its highly successful LEGION Total Knee System - LEGION Narrow Femoral Components with OXINIUM Oxidized Zirconium. The only narrow components that offer Smith & Nephew’s proprietary VERILAST Technology, these new implants offer surgeons and their patients the potential for implants with better fit and wear performance.
These new LEGION components are thinner in the medial/lateral dimension (side-to-side) to give surgeons the ability to more closely fit a patient’s natural anatomy. For patients with smaller femurs, using a femoral component that is too wide can result in overhang of the femoral component. Studies have shown that improving implant fit can reduce pain and increase satisfaction among total knee replacement patients.i
In addition to fit, the new femoral components address implant wear performance with the use of VERILAST Technology. The combination of two wear reducing materials the proprietary OXINIUM alloy and a highly cross-linked plastic liner, VERILAST Technology has the potential to improve the wear performance of an implant. In fact, even on traditional plastic liners, OXINIUM implants are 4,900 times more abrasion resistant than cobalt chrome and have been shown in lab testing to reduce artificial joint wear by 85-percent compared to cobalt chromium femoral components.ii
“These new components further demonstrate the LEGION Total Knee System’s commitment to patient specific fit,” says Dr. Steven Haas, Chief of Knee Service at The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. “When you add the LEGION Narrow options to the system’s existing asymmetric tibias, gender-based sizing and advanced bearing materials, the ability for me to optimize fit for each of my patients is really exciting.”
“Two of the biggest concerns with any total knee replacement are wear performance and fit,” explains Scott Elliott, SVP & General Manager, Reconstructive Strategic Business Unit for Smith & Nephew’s Advanced Surgical Devices Division. “With the LEGION Total Knee System, we offer an unprecedented solution to both: VERILAST Technology for wear performance and new size options to address patient fit.”
First introduced in 1997, the LEGION Total Knee System is a comprehensive system that allows surgeons to address a diverse range of surgical challenges with one system of instrumentation and components. The system includes both cruciate retaining and posterior stabilized primary knees, as well as revision knees and has more than 15 years of clinical history and continues to achieve outstanding clinical outcomes.iii
About Smith & Nephew
Smith & Nephew is a global medical technology business dedicated to helping improve people’s lives. With leadership positions in Orthopaedic Reconstruction, Advanced Wound Management, Sports Medicine and Trauma, Smith & Nephew has almost 11,000 employees and a presence in more than 90 countries. Annual sales in 2011 were nearly $4.3 billion. Smith & Nephew is a member of the FTSE100 (LSE:SN, NYSE:SNN).
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i Overhang of the Femoral Component in Total Knee Arthroplasty: Risk Factors and Clinical Consequences; JBJS 2010 ; Ormonde M. Mahoney, MD
ii G. Hunter and M. Long, “Abrasive wear of oxidized Zr-2.5Nb, CoCrMo, and Ti-6Al-4V against bone cement”, 6th World Biomaterials Cong. Trans., Society For Biomaterials, Minneapolis, MN, 2000, p. 835.
iii Based on GENESIS II clinical data; Knee. 2012 Jan;19(1):8-13. Epub 2011 Apr 14., The Genesis II in primary total knee replacement: a systematic literature review of clinical outcomes., Bhandari M, Pascale W, Sprague S, Pascale V.
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