The benefits of customized patient instrumentation to lower-volume joint replacement surgeons: results from practice

Because of the significant risks associated with component malalignment, considerable resources are being utilized to develop technology to improve alignment and decrease outliers in knee replacement surgery. While computer-assisted surgery is more accurate and allows for decreased outliers when compared to traditional instrumentation, it is not a technology that can be utilized by all surgeons who perform total knee arthroplasty (TKA) due to increased operative times and cost. Recently, the creation and use of patient-customized cutting guides has been applied to TKA. Published studies and results from practice have shown customized patient instrumentation technology to have comparable or better implant alignment than traditional instrumentation and increased efficiency with regard to surgical preparation time, the amount of surgical instrumentation needed, and cost savings. For lower-volume/inexperienced surgeons, these advantages can be significant.