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Development of a modular ceramic knee prosthesis
(Humana Press, 2000) Payten, WM; Ben-Nissan, B
Degenerative joint disease, recognized as an increasing problem for society, is a direct result of an aging population (1). When patients present with joint pain, their primary concern is the relief of pain and return to a mobile life style. This often requires replacement of skeletal parts, such as hips, knees, elbows, finger joints, shoulder, and teeth, or fusion of vertebrae, and repair or augmentation of the jaw and bones of the skull. The result is a current worldwide orthopedic market valued at over $5 billion; joint replacement represents 68% of this market. The demand for knee replacements is increasing at approx 17%/yr, with some 300,000 knee joints replaced each year in the United States alone (2). This increase results in part from increased confidence in using such prostheses. Unfortunately, results do not reinforce this confidence: Long-term clinical results are scattered (3), and, although the overall rate of failure is reasonably low, it remains unacceptable. A further complication arises because the increase in younger patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) may well lead to a higher incidence of eventual failure. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2000