Personalized Hip Replacement Clears FDA

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (KFSN) -- A hip replacement system recently approved by the FDA is helping surgeons find the best alignment for the prosthetics. The optimized position system, or OPS, starts weeks before surgery, with x-rays, CT scans, and 3D models.

Polio as a child left Barbara Abbott with legs of different lengths. But hip pain that flared up a few years ago has slowed this active 72-year-old. Even sitting to paint hurt.

"So I'm afraid at the point I might fall, because it's like a hot pan, you have to drop it. When you step on it at that perfect angle, it's just excruciating," Abbott explained.

Before surgery with the OPS system, patients get x-rays of how the pelvis moves in three positions.

"Then, with the use of a CT scan of the pelvis, we can create this patient-specific block that exactly matches the bony morphology of the pelvis," said Steven Barnett, MD, an Orthopedic Surgeon at Hoag Orthopedic Institute. (Read Full Interview)

Those images are used to make a hip analysis and a 3D model of Abbott's hip. All this shows exactly where to put the socket and a guide block that's aligned with a laser.

Dr. Barnett said, "When we actually put the implant in, we just match up our laser points so that we know we've repeated the exact angles that we planned for pre-operatively."

The team takes x-rays during the procedure, too, to make sure everything lines up. Dr. Barnett says the OPS system adds a few minutes to the 45-minute surgery.

"Her arthritis pain will be gone this afternoon once the surgery is over, and she'll be up walking," Dr. Barnett shared.

"Since I'll be walking right away, I hope to be right out here going as soon as I can and get back on my bike." Abbott said.

And she can't wait to keep up again with Dan, her husband of 52 years.

For more information on this report, please contact:

James Chisum, Media Relations

562-493-6023

jamesc@millergeer.com