Bangkok--7 Apr--TQPR (Thailand)
King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the leading hospital for orthopaedic surgery in Thailand, today presented a dynamic lecture workshop on a new kind of knee replacement surgery known as the combination of “Minimally Invasive Surgery for Total Knee Arthroplasty — MIS TKA” and "Computer Assisted Solutions Electro Magnetic — CAS EM". Prof. Dr. Alfred Jacques Tria, Jr., M.D., Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery who is the developer of MIS TKA led the workshop from the United States, along with orthopaedic specialists from King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. MIS TKA is a new type of surgery, which is less damaging to the tissue around the knee, has smaller cuts/wounds, less bleeding, and needs less time for the healing process. Nowadays, this new kind of surgery is combined with MIS TKA and computer navigation known as CAS EM, which ensures more accuracy throughout the operation.
King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital would be the first hospital in Thailand using this latest technology and on 23 February 2006, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital has presented the first lecture and workshop on MIS TKA and CAS EM at Chula-Zimmer Institute, Charoen-Somsri Building to orthopaedic specialists from Thailand’s hospitals. King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital is the leading hospital offering minimally invasive joint reconstruction technology and recently it brought the navigated surgical technologies, “CAS EM” to combine with “MIS TKA”. These orthopaedic applications combine global experience and a mutual spirit of innovation.
Minimally Invasive Surgery for Total Knee Arthroplasty is one method of performing a knee replacement. It uses a smaller incision, going from 8 inches to 10 inches long down to only 4 inches to 6 inches long. This means that there will be potentially less damage to the tissue around the knee resulting in significantly less pain and less scar tissue. Just over a decade ago, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) was just being introduced into widespread use in general and thoracic surgery. Today, MIS has become the standard of care for many procedures and has become widely accepted in nearly all medical specialties, often replacing traditional, open surgery.
At present, Computer Assisted Solutions Electro Magnetic - CAS EM demonstrates the spirit of medical innovation in computer technology, intelligent surgical navigation tools and virtual (3-D) navigation software in the physician’s hands. These cutting-edge technologies are designed to preserve and augment visualization during minimally invasive procedures, aid in precise placement of instruments, assist in proper implant positioning, eliminate radiation exposure to patient, physician, and staff, and enhance surgeon confidence in performing MIS TKA techniques in real-time. This innovative technology is better than the former CAS system, which needs two more incisions for a big femur & tibia trackers.
Minimally Invasive Surgery for Total Knee Arthroplasty - MIS TKA is now the most successfully method when it is combined with the Electro Magnetic Navigation System. “I’m really glad I was able to present this here today in Thailand”, Prof. Dr. Alfred Jacques Tria, Jr., M.D., Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and the American developer of MIS TKA said. “With this combined technology, I believe that the patients and surgeons will gain many advantages: enable more accuracy in less invasive surgical procedures, real time localization certainty and higher surgical precision, real time alignment information, reduce risks of revision surgeries especially when normal landmarks are compromised, reduce unnecessary bone resection and verify of range of motion through quantifiable kinematic testing.”
Dr. Pibul Itiravivong, M.D., Prof. and Head of the Department of Orthopaedics, Chulalongkorn Medical School, said “The lecture and workshop held by King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital will help our orthopaedic specialists in Thailand to have more understanding of this new combined technology surgery. In the future, we believe that older Thai patients would achieve more accurate joint replacement during the operation procedure and they will experience less pain and the scars will be smaller. These advantages can be a big to help to them, both physically and mentally.”
Dr. Aree Tanavalee, M.D., Associate Professor of Orthopaedics, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, stated, "We’re glad to welcome the developer of MIS TKA from the U.S. and to host the lecture and workshop so as to educate doctors in Thailand on this new kind of surgery. We always look to make surgery as minimally invasive to the patients as possible and this new technology is well known in globally, and it is the great opportunity to bring this beneficial technological advance to Thailand. This will bring significant advantages to our patients, and the surgeons using this new kind of surgery.”
Physicians in Thailand attending the workshop have been able to realize the importance of minimally invasive surgery and computer assisted to knee replacement, information they can share as they further collaborate with the networks of experts.
For further information as well as pictures, please contact
Tom Van Blarcom/ Ruthaiwan Tanwongwan Secretary of Dr. Pibul Itiravivong
TQPR Thailand Head, Department of Orthopaedics
Tel. 0 2260 5820 King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital
Fax. 0 2260 5847-8 Tel. 0 2254 4510
Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
Click for photo release at www.thaipr.net