When I was growing up, Dad always had workshop. One of the mantra’s I heard him repeat (and find myself repeating to my kids) is “measure twice, cut once.” That is, make sure the part fits before you make it permanent. The parents of the good people of Zimmer apparently never imparted such wisdom to their kids.
Zimmer has now had to recall a part of its Persona artificial knee implant, specifically, the Persona porous coated, uncemented trabecular metal tibial plate. Say that three times fast. It seems that Zimmer began selling its knee implant without doing any clinical trials first. This is the same problem Stryker had with its hip implants recently.
Zimmer Persona knee components can become loose, causing swelling and pain, and develop radiolucent lines – large gaps between the parts of the implant and the bones – which can damage both the bones (called osteolysis) and the device itself.
What does this mean to you:
A couple of rhetorical questions come to mind. Shouldn’t companies that make products, especially ones that get implanted inside your body, have to test them first? And how does one actually recall a device AFTER its been implanted?
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