Knee Anatomy
The knee joint, made up of the ends of the femur (thighbone) and tibia (shinbone) is cushioned by a spongy tissue called cartilage. Damage and wear and tear of the cartilage cause painful rubbing of the joint bones, leading to disability. This condition can be successfully treated with knee replacement surgery, which involves the replacement of the damaged tissue with a prosthetic implant.
Signature Knee System
Signature knee is a unique knee replacement procedure that is tailored to suit your individual anatomy. The technique utilizes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to create 3D images of your knee joint, which enables your doctor to efficiently plan your knee replacement surgery. The signature system also helps design and creates patient-specific femoral and tibial positioning guides that will be used during the knee replacement surgery to ensure a perfect fit of the knee implant.
Signature vs. Traditional Knee Replacement
Before the knee replacement surgery, the signature system requires an MRI scan to obtain 3D images of the knee joint, while traditional surgeries are based on 2D images generated by X-rays. While the traditional procedure uses and places multiple instruments to assist and verify proper alignment and positioning of the implant, the signature system uses customized positioning guides directly on the femur and tibia bones and does not require any instrumentation of the bone canal, enabling a less invasive surgery.
Advantages of Signature Knee Replacement
The following are the advantages of the signature knee system:
- It is a very specific and personalized approach to knee replacement.
- It is based on your unique anatomy.
- It uses 3D MRI instead of 2D X-ray.
- It helps your doctor position the implant accurately, as the guides are patient-matched.
