Imported knee implants a misfit; Indian docs take initiative

Knee surgeons from different parts of the country attending the 'Arthroplasty Arthroscopy Summit 2016' in Hyderabad this week discussed the need for documenting Indian knee sizes and methods to 'Make In India' for knee implants.

Knee surgeons who attended the summit hosted by Apollo Hospitals highlighted the problem that is frequently plaguing knee replacement surgeries in India.  

"Most of the knee implants used for surgery are imported and are based on the sizes of American and European patients. These implants are a misfit for Indian patients and don't facilitate their regular activities and the cost of these imported implants is very high," a release said.

A team of doctors deliberated on the problems and have embarked on a one year project for size standardisation and identifying methods for producing high quality affordable implants, as part of the 'Make in India' initiative, it said.

Over the next 12 months, the team aims to screen more than 1.5 lakh patients in a multi-centre trial throughout the country both radiologically and anthropologically to arrive at the ideal Indian size requirements. The data would be fed into a special software in collaboration with DRDO and IIT for further research, it said.

Dr Mithin Aachi said, "Indian knee morphology is totally different from European or American, they never sit down or squat, while we do, therefore our knees are flat and need customised implants of different sizes to fit different patients.

"Our study will indicate if knee sizes of north Indians is different from south Indians and such other variations," Aachi added.

Based on the research a new high quality but affordable knee would be developed which would help the patients suffering from this disease, he said.

Dr L Prakash said, "We are already in the process of perfecting the prototype and are confident that the standardised knee will be available in a year after the research ends after appropriate certification."

"Currently 95 per cent of the country's needs are met by imported implants from US, Germany, England, Turkey, Brazil and even China," Prakash said.

"Indians have high rate of knee arthritis, almost six times of those in UK and eight times of those in US, while the number of knee replacements done here is not even 1 per cent of what is done in UK," he said.