Attune Tibia issue

That is the most ill-informed comment of the day.....They teach that Depuy sales school?

A thicker, less flexible tibia tray helps an active patient how??

 

Depends who you ask about Attune these days. Surgeons will tell you a different thing from marketing who will say something different from management. What's up with that?

 

Well, there IS talk about Attune failing at the show. When you ask about the reported "cement technique" problem they turn red, and start mumbling. Obviously they were not prepared for all the questions about Attune, almost like they were hoping this was gonna pass. This is gonna blow up like the hips did it feels like. Good luck

 

Where there smoke there's lawyers, where there's lawyers there's fire. If you are fortunate enough to have an offer elsewhere take it and what business you have left.

 

One of my surgeons just gave me a copy of a paper that was at AAOS about tibial loosening on a "Novel" knee! Everyone knows what those surgeons who wrote the paper use...especially the competition! Anyone know anything about it?

 

If you have the paper....read it. Radiolucent lines is not tibial loosening and an 8 month follow up with wide decrepancy among the three "independent" evaluators (the surgeon and his two fellows) is one of the weakest scientific write ups I've ever seen . They must have taken a class from Stryker on how to make science.

 

https://aaos.apprisor.org/epsViewsTop.cfm?sTopic=Poster&sYear=2017

 

Amen...and by the way, there's a knee DePuy makes called the LCS...you might have heard of it. It's been around for over 30 years and has a very strong clinical heritage, and that baseplate is thicker than the Attune's. The original paper that gave Stryker and everyone else hard ons even said that what little stress shielding may have been occurring was not clinically relevant.

 

Did you see the X-rays in that study? I would be ashamed if knees I was selling had radiolucencies like that at 5 years, let alone 8 months! They weren't just the tibias either...don't know what is going on there. Might be the cement technique like DePuy is telling them. Not.

 

What is the name of the poster?

 

https://aaos.apprisor.org/epsAbstractAAOS.cfm?id=3

Poster 122, although there are 2 posters about Attune. One is about thickness of trays, but isn't as large, and more anecdotal.

 

There are still two very well known authors/surgeons who are yet to break cover with posters that are far more damning that the two mentioned above. I guess we will see them at AAHKS and at least by then, we will have the revision tibial tray in general use so may dodge the bullet.

 

This the is the 40th anniversary year of the LCS and for 40 years the tibia has been made out of cobalt chrome that is thicker than any fixed bearing knee. Long term results are pretty awesome. Same for MBT which came along in about 2000. CoCr is not an issue for cemented fixation. The company has tightened cleaned up some instrument and technique issues and this will blow over when the revision tray is available for larger patients. Now back to work.....

 

Keep drinking the Kool Aid. I have seen these tibias lift out of 120lb women. I have an RFP on the table that wants stems included for primary knees. Can you see your manager agreeing to that.

 

Lots of surgeons now talking about Depuy issues after the show. Apparently the same question was being asked by a large group of surgeons and they have multiple answers from the Depuy team there. Definelty an issue that's becoming a bigger problem as it's being thrown under the rug with hope a revision system saves the day. What a joke

 

Have heard that from multiple people also. If those surgeons with additional posters had balls they would get the word out. Just as unethical as Depuy to sit on it knowing there is a problem.

 

I really like the Attune, but I have seen lines around the tibia in a significant number of follow ups. They havent failed, but lines around a tibial baseplate are concerning. I am not sure what to make of it. Hopefully this isnt something bigger.

 

My problems started with seeing lines, passed all initial tests then had a few complain of tibia pain. From there it's been a run of revisions, some had lines, some had no lines but pain. There is an issue with the tibia side, obviously lots of talk about it.

 

Any updates. Just had my surgeon ask me about this issue. He never switched to Attune but has heard of the issues from colleagues.