The knee joint being the heaviest joint in the body, carries about half of the body’s weight and is consequently most susceptible to injury, damage or wear. Knee implant surgery is commonly done for patients suffering from pain and disability caused due to damage to knee cartilage from rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, or trauma.
During the knee implant procedure, damaged and worn out weight bearing surfaces of the bone are replaced by implant made of clinical grade titanium. The lifespan of such implant depends on how well the titanium implant surface is able to integrate with the bone.
Normally such implants have a life span of about 15 years after which risk of loosening of implant or wear of implant increases significantly. According to available statistics, about 20 million Americans of age above 45 years are affected by osteoarthritis. It can be inferred that patients of age group 45 years to 60 years may have to undergo second surgery to replace the first implant after using the first implant for about 15 years.
According to the research done at Georgia Institute of Technology, it may no longer be necessary to undergo a second surgery to replace the first implant after 15 years.
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have developed new improved titanium implants for knee replacement whose surface is coated by three or five self-assembled tethered clusters of the engineered fibronectin protein. This coating by clusters of fibronectin protein at the nanoscale level helps to promote bone formation around the implant, resulting in implant to be fixed twice as securely as compared to implants made from bare titanium. This coating helps to significantly increase the life span of an implant procedure much beyond 15 years period.
Source: Journal Science Translational Medicine.
