Chinese people’s joints wear out too, but replacement implants have, on occasion, been too large. Now a team of 21 experts from France and China’s Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital in the southwestern city of Chengdu have co-developed artificial knee joints based on the bone proportion of Chinese people.
Chinese Expand Orthopedic Implant Capabilities
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Artificial knee joints, domestic or imported, used to be produced according to the skeleton structure of Europeans, said Wang Yue, orthopedic doctor of the hospital. “Westerners are generally larger than Chinese in terms of body size, which is why patients less than 1.4 meters (about 4.6 feet) tall in China cannot find appropriate artificial knees, ” Wang said.
Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said at a press conference that the two countries would further cooperate on the development of artificial joints to meet the growing demand of Chinese people.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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