Recently, two major orthopaedic implant manufacturers, (Stryker Corp. and Zimmer Holdings Inc.) announced the availability of total knee replacement implants specifically designed for women. We all know that men and women are different, but how does this relate to knee implants?
The key difference is the relative size of the end of the femur or thigh bone. For a given front-to-back or anterior-posterior (AP) width, the femurs of females tend to be narrower in the medial-lateral (ML) or side-to-side direction compared to males. An implant which is proportioned based on male anatomy would, therefore, be too wide on a similarly sized female. The result is that when a surgeon sizes the implant based on the AP width of the femur, the implant could overhang the narrower female bone and cause irritation of the surrounding soft-tissue. Faced with this situation, orthopaedic surgeons are sometimes forced to downsize the femoral component during total knee replacement surgery. In downsizing the femoral component, the doctor chooses a smaller implant, so that the implant does not overhang the sides of the bone.
There are, however, some potential disadvantages to...
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