The pain associated with osteoarthritis has deprived many people of their normal activities of daily living.
Simple pleasures like walking, shopping, and participating in favorite pastimes, become more difficult or impossible.
Diet, exercise, and medications under a physician's care may help alleviate the symptoms of osteoarthritis. When they do not, surgery may be an option.
Joint replacement at Schneck is not new.
What is new is our dedicated Bone & Joint Center offering state-of-the-art care, specialized surgical and nursing teams, patient and family-focused accommodations, streamlined registration, and enhanced pre-op education and post-op follow-up care.
Schneck is proud to be the only hospital in the region to offer the Visionaire knee replacement procedure.
Kristopher M. Williams, DO is here to explain how patients can expect a more accurate knee alignment, faster recovery time, less pain, and longer implant longevity with the Visionaire system.
Selected Podcast
The Benefit of Visionaire for Knee Replacement
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Kristopher M. Williams, DO
Kristopher M. Williams, DO
Dr. Kristopher Williams attended Midwestern University in Chicago and completed his residency at Midwestern University in Chicago. He joined the medical staff of Schneck Medical Center in 2009.Learn more about Kristopher M. Williams, DO
Transcription:
The Benefit of Visionaire for Knee Replacement
Bill Klaproth (Host): Bad knees can take you out of the game of life quickly. However, there’s a new procedure called the “Visionaire Procedure” which makes knee replacement surgery quicker and easier. With us is Dr. Chris Williams, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at Schneck Medical Center. Dr. Williams, thanks for your time today. We appreciate it. How common is knee injury and knee degeneration today with our aging population?
Dr. Chris Williams (Guest): It’s becoming more and more common and it’s starting to affect patients even at a younger age. In my community with the factories, I see a lot of worn out knees just from the constant work on concrete floors and things like that. As you said, with the baby boomer generation getting older, we’re seeing more and more worn out knees in the office.
Bill: There’s a new procedure called the “Visioniare Procedure”. Can you tell us about that and how that changes what you do when it comes to knee replacement surgery?
Dr. Williams: Sure. Visionaire Knee Replacement is a type of what’s called “patient matched knee replacement”. Basically, I take an MRI of the knee and that information is sent to the company. They use that MRI, in addition to computer programming, to design patient-specific instruments to place these total knees. Those instruments are printed out on a 3-D printer, which spits out these cutting blocks and that’s what we use during surgery to make all of our cuts on the bone. They are specifically designed around the patient’s anatomy.
Bill: This makes surgery more precise for you. Obviously, it goes quicker. Probably more successful. Are there benefits after the surgery that also benefits the patient because of the Visionaire knee replacement surgery?
Dr. Williams: Yes. With the traditional knee replacement we use a long metal rod that gets inserted inside the bone, into the canal of the bone. When that happens and we take that rod out after all the alignment is done, the blood and bone marrow from the inside of that bone comes out into the knee. That process continues even after surgery. With the Visionaire technique, I don’t have to use that rod and so the canal stays sealed and all that blood and marrow stays put. There’s a lot less bleeding into the joint, both during and after the procedure which, ultimately, decreases our incidence of blood transfusion but also translates to the patient as less pain and quicker recovery from that knee replacement.
Bill: And I imagine less infection then, too, right?
Dr. Williams: Theoretically, because the procedure takes me less time in the OR, there would be a theoretical decrease of infection. Every minute that your knee is opened up in the OR, that’s a risk for bacterial infection. The shorter the procedure, theoretically, the less likely an infection would be.
Bill: Is everyone a candidate for the Visionaire knee replacement surgery or are only certain people well-suited for this?
Dr. Williams: Most people are a candidate. I would say most people that are a candidate for knee replacement in general are a candidate for Visionaire. The one thing to prevent this would be if a patient has either a pacemaker or a metal stint in their heart--some reason they couldn’t have an MRI. If you can’t have an MRI, at this time at least, we can’t make the custom block. But, as long as you can have an MRI and otherwise you’re suitable for joint replacement, you’d be a candidate for Visionaire knee replacement.
Bill: Are there different risks involved with this than a traditional knee replacement surgery?
Dr. Williams: No. There’s no increased risk with this procedure versus the traditional knee replacement.
Bill: How widespread is this? It’s a new procedure. Are most doctors doing this or is this a procedure now only a few doctors – obviously, you’re very versed in it.
Dr. Williams: Yes. I’ve been doing this since I started practicing here in Southern Indiana. I think nationally, maybe 25% or less of surgeons are utilizing this technology. Some of it is with the older surgeons, they have a system that they believe works and they don’t want to change. I think some of that is the reason why more people aren’t doing it. Definitely, in my practice, I’ve seen a lot of benefits from doing it this way.
Bill: Talk about recovery time. When is it until someone starts to feel normal and someone doesn’t even remember that they had knee surgery? What’s the timeframe for that after knee replacement surgery?
Dr. Williams: I think, in general, it can vary with the patient but what I usually tell my patients is in about six weeks, you’re feeling pretty good with it and in about three months, you’re really not thinking about it anymore.
Bill: That’s terrific. We hear about standup desks a lot--how people should stand up. I happen to have a stand up desk and it has helped me a lot I think but at times my knees feel a little stiff. What about for these new things like stand up desks and knees? How do we keep our knees healthy with these new type of devices?
Dr. Williams: I think maintaining a close to ideal body weight is one of the best thing that you can do for your joints. Every pound off your body is four pounds of reactive force off your knee joints. There is a big study out of Harvard that showed that people that lost as little as ten pounds saw a 90% reduction in their knee pain. Definitely, trying to stay fit, active and maintain a healthy body weight is one of the main things that you can do to help prevent osteoarthritis of your knees. Also, strength training and making sure that your ligaments and muscles surrounding the knee are strong can prevent injury which might predispose you to earlier arthritis as well.
Bill: Absolutely. For someone that is suffering with knee pain, when is it time to see the doctor?
Dr. Williams: Just as with any other joint type pain, when the pain gets to the point where you see that you’re activities are being reduced, it’s hard to exercise, it’s hard to sleep, you have pain every day--those are all indications that you need to be evaluated. We have several nonsurgical treatments for knee pain. Getting evaluated early and getting treated can help prolong the life of your natural knee and maybe delay a joint replacement surgery.
Bill: Absolutely. Physical therapy first, and then, good to know that there are these good procedures like the Visionaire procedure that can certainly help someone with knee replacement surgery and aid in the recovery time. It just seems like such a better way to do things all around when it comes to knee surgery. Dr. Williams, why should someone chose Schneck Medical Center for their knee replacement needs?
Dr. Williams: We use state of the art techniques and we’re very innovative here at Schneck. For instance, for our total joints, we have a meeting every Friday morning that goes over every patient individually. We study that patient’s medical history and we try to predict any problems that they might have during and after surgery and we pretreat those issues. That meeting is held with a team of specialists ranging from physical therapy to hospitalists to anesthesiology and we all discuss each patient as an individual. You really do get an individual experience with your joint replacement.
Bill: Sounds like total personalize care which is really important.
Dr. Williams: Absolutely personalized care. We also have won several awards for our joint replacement techniques and our infection rate is extremely low--below the national average. Our patients are very happy. We send out questionnaires and surveys and we get very good scores on those. Our patients are very happy and remark about how nice and easy their experience was here at Schneck.
Bill: That’s very important in today’s day and age. We appreciate all your hard work, Dr. Williams. Thank you so much and for more information visit SchneckMed.org. That’s SchneckMed.org. This is Schneck Radio. I’m Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.
The Benefit of Visionaire for Knee Replacement
Bill Klaproth (Host): Bad knees can take you out of the game of life quickly. However, there’s a new procedure called the “Visionaire Procedure” which makes knee replacement surgery quicker and easier. With us is Dr. Chris Williams, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at Schneck Medical Center. Dr. Williams, thanks for your time today. We appreciate it. How common is knee injury and knee degeneration today with our aging population?
Dr. Chris Williams (Guest): It’s becoming more and more common and it’s starting to affect patients even at a younger age. In my community with the factories, I see a lot of worn out knees just from the constant work on concrete floors and things like that. As you said, with the baby boomer generation getting older, we’re seeing more and more worn out knees in the office.
Bill: There’s a new procedure called the “Visioniare Procedure”. Can you tell us about that and how that changes what you do when it comes to knee replacement surgery?
Dr. Williams: Sure. Visionaire Knee Replacement is a type of what’s called “patient matched knee replacement”. Basically, I take an MRI of the knee and that information is sent to the company. They use that MRI, in addition to computer programming, to design patient-specific instruments to place these total knees. Those instruments are printed out on a 3-D printer, which spits out these cutting blocks and that’s what we use during surgery to make all of our cuts on the bone. They are specifically designed around the patient’s anatomy.
Bill: This makes surgery more precise for you. Obviously, it goes quicker. Probably more successful. Are there benefits after the surgery that also benefits the patient because of the Visionaire knee replacement surgery?
Dr. Williams: Yes. With the traditional knee replacement we use a long metal rod that gets inserted inside the bone, into the canal of the bone. When that happens and we take that rod out after all the alignment is done, the blood and bone marrow from the inside of that bone comes out into the knee. That process continues even after surgery. With the Visionaire technique, I don’t have to use that rod and so the canal stays sealed and all that blood and marrow stays put. There’s a lot less bleeding into the joint, both during and after the procedure which, ultimately, decreases our incidence of blood transfusion but also translates to the patient as less pain and quicker recovery from that knee replacement.
Bill: And I imagine less infection then, too, right?
Dr. Williams: Theoretically, because the procedure takes me less time in the OR, there would be a theoretical decrease of infection. Every minute that your knee is opened up in the OR, that’s a risk for bacterial infection. The shorter the procedure, theoretically, the less likely an infection would be.
Bill: Is everyone a candidate for the Visionaire knee replacement surgery or are only certain people well-suited for this?
Dr. Williams: Most people are a candidate. I would say most people that are a candidate for knee replacement in general are a candidate for Visionaire. The one thing to prevent this would be if a patient has either a pacemaker or a metal stint in their heart--some reason they couldn’t have an MRI. If you can’t have an MRI, at this time at least, we can’t make the custom block. But, as long as you can have an MRI and otherwise you’re suitable for joint replacement, you’d be a candidate for Visionaire knee replacement.
Bill: Are there different risks involved with this than a traditional knee replacement surgery?
Dr. Williams: No. There’s no increased risk with this procedure versus the traditional knee replacement.
Bill: How widespread is this? It’s a new procedure. Are most doctors doing this or is this a procedure now only a few doctors – obviously, you’re very versed in it.
Dr. Williams: Yes. I’ve been doing this since I started practicing here in Southern Indiana. I think nationally, maybe 25% or less of surgeons are utilizing this technology. Some of it is with the older surgeons, they have a system that they believe works and they don’t want to change. I think some of that is the reason why more people aren’t doing it. Definitely, in my practice, I’ve seen a lot of benefits from doing it this way.
Bill: Talk about recovery time. When is it until someone starts to feel normal and someone doesn’t even remember that they had knee surgery? What’s the timeframe for that after knee replacement surgery?
Dr. Williams: I think, in general, it can vary with the patient but what I usually tell my patients is in about six weeks, you’re feeling pretty good with it and in about three months, you’re really not thinking about it anymore.
Bill: That’s terrific. We hear about standup desks a lot--how people should stand up. I happen to have a stand up desk and it has helped me a lot I think but at times my knees feel a little stiff. What about for these new things like stand up desks and knees? How do we keep our knees healthy with these new type of devices?
Dr. Williams: I think maintaining a close to ideal body weight is one of the best thing that you can do for your joints. Every pound off your body is four pounds of reactive force off your knee joints. There is a big study out of Harvard that showed that people that lost as little as ten pounds saw a 90% reduction in their knee pain. Definitely, trying to stay fit, active and maintain a healthy body weight is one of the main things that you can do to help prevent osteoarthritis of your knees. Also, strength training and making sure that your ligaments and muscles surrounding the knee are strong can prevent injury which might predispose you to earlier arthritis as well.
Bill: Absolutely. For someone that is suffering with knee pain, when is it time to see the doctor?
Dr. Williams: Just as with any other joint type pain, when the pain gets to the point where you see that you’re activities are being reduced, it’s hard to exercise, it’s hard to sleep, you have pain every day--those are all indications that you need to be evaluated. We have several nonsurgical treatments for knee pain. Getting evaluated early and getting treated can help prolong the life of your natural knee and maybe delay a joint replacement surgery.
Bill: Absolutely. Physical therapy first, and then, good to know that there are these good procedures like the Visionaire procedure that can certainly help someone with knee replacement surgery and aid in the recovery time. It just seems like such a better way to do things all around when it comes to knee surgery. Dr. Williams, why should someone chose Schneck Medical Center for their knee replacement needs?
Dr. Williams: We use state of the art techniques and we’re very innovative here at Schneck. For instance, for our total joints, we have a meeting every Friday morning that goes over every patient individually. We study that patient’s medical history and we try to predict any problems that they might have during and after surgery and we pretreat those issues. That meeting is held with a team of specialists ranging from physical therapy to hospitalists to anesthesiology and we all discuss each patient as an individual. You really do get an individual experience with your joint replacement.
Bill: Sounds like total personalize care which is really important.
Dr. Williams: Absolutely personalized care. We also have won several awards for our joint replacement techniques and our infection rate is extremely low--below the national average. Our patients are very happy. We send out questionnaires and surveys and we get very good scores on those. Our patients are very happy and remark about how nice and easy their experience was here at Schneck.
Bill: That’s very important in today’s day and age. We appreciate all your hard work, Dr. Williams. Thank you so much and for more information visit SchneckMed.org. That’s SchneckMed.org. This is Schneck Radio. I’m Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.