I love startups. I write about how startups can take big risks that the big companies cannot.
Enter Okani Medical, a Chinese startup. Okani's is taking a big chance with their new all polymer knee, ORGKnee. Many of you may have seen them at academy. They made a splash this year in New Orleans. Their claims are less wear and lower cost.
"Cool, but it's not going to work!"
I am going on the record today that the ORGKnee long term clinicals will be well bellow par for TKAs. Clinical issues will probably be a higher incidence of loosening and pain. It's March 2018 and I am stating my prediction.
Why?
I know a bit about total knees. I designed three total knee systems during my orthopedic career in R&D (S+N, Sulzer, Wright). A lower stiffness design has potential benefits of better load sharing, but a lower stiffness design can be a detriment also. Lower stiffness induces more micromotion between the bone and implant. Studies have suggested about 150um (microns). Then there are fatigue questions - cantilever fatigue strength of the tibial plate, same for the femoral condyle, and tibial post fatigue. Metal alloys perform better than plastics in fatigue. Plus, there is a growi...
