Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Turns out knee surgery can hold even in heavier patients

March 7, 2017 By Chris Newmarker

meniscus knee surgery

[Image by Henry Vandyke Carter – Henry Gray (1918) Anatomy of the Human Body, Public Domain]

Increased body mass index is actually a poor predictor of whether a common type of knee surgery, meniscal repair, will fail, according to new research out of Ohio State University.

The results matter because experts assumed that BMI plays a role when it came to the roughly 15% of meniscal repairs that fail, said Dr. David Flanigan, an orthopedic surgeon at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center who was the lead author of the study.

“This tells us that surgeons should not consider weight as a factor when deciding if a patient is a good candidate for meniscal repair surgery,” Flanigan said in a news release. “If a meniscus is repairable and surgery is appropriate for that patient, you can do the surgery and they would have the same success as someone who is not as heavy.”

Flanigan and his colleagues published their study in The Journal of Knee Surgery. The OSU researchers followed 410 people who underwent meniscal repair surgery from 2006 to 2012 and found no significant difference in failure rates between those with a normal BMI (less than 25) and elevated BMI (25 or higher).

There is an important caveat to consider with this study. Among the 410 people covered in the study, 90% had a BMI of less than 35. It’s unclear, then, whether severe obesity could play a role in meniscal repair failure. Still, those who are simply on the heavier side shouldn’t see a difference when it comes to whether the repair sticks.

Surgeons have factored in weight along with other factors including activity level, type of meniscus tear and stability of the knee when judging whether a meniscal repair will fail. If they think that it will, they may opt to instead perform a meniscectomy, in which they remove part or all of the meniscus. A meniscectomy can potentially lead to knee instability and joint degradation.

Flanigan said his research shows that it best to repair the meniscus whenever possible, versus removing it.

“That structure is so vital to the knee and provides a cushion to the joint,” Flanigan said. “Repairing it can prevent some of the arthritic changes from progressing in the knee. So if a meniscus is repairable, I’m very aggressive to perform that procedure.”

[Want to stay more on top of MDO content? Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter.]

Related Articles Read More >

A portrait of Stryker executive Siddarth Satish
How Stryker includes users for product design in the digital age
A portrait of Stryker executive Tracy Robertson
Stryker leaders talk medtech trends at DeviceTalks Boston: ‘If you’re slow, you’re going to lose’
Stryker Mako robotic-arm assisted surgery robotic digital health medtech
How Stryker is advancing digital healthcare
Ariste Medical co-founder Lisa Jennings
Ariste Medical co-founder sees great potential for drug-coated implants and orthopedics

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 20, 2022
DeviceTalks Boston Post-Game – Editors’ Top Moments, Insulet’s Eric Benjamin on future of Omnipod 5
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech