{"id":274,"date":"2016-09-07T07:19:58","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T11:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orthopaediclist.com\/blog\/?p=274"},"modified":"2016-09-07T07:21:57","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T11:21:57","slug":"implant-identification-an-opportunity-for-you-to-participate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthopaediclist.com\/blog\/implant-identification-an-opportunity-for-you-to-participate\/","title":{"rendered":"Implant Identification: An Opportunity for You to Participate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Having been in the orthopaedic profession for a long time, I have occasionally been confronted with an implant that I did not recognize and either did not have enough time or was unable to find out what it was.\u00a0\u00a0Who hasn\u2019t seen or heard of a bent femoral rod from trauma?\u00a0\u00a0How about the\u00a0intramedullary rod that had been in a femur for thirty years and had to be removed for a total knee replacement?\u00a0\u00a0There have been a few knee and hip prostheses that had been implanted at \u201cElsewhere General\u201d and needed to be revised.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I looked for a source that listed implants, I couldn\u2019t find one.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s when\u00a0OrthopaedicList.com<\/a>\u00a0was conceived.\u00a0\u00a0It has proved to be immensely popular and useful for finding sources of implants, but we needed more.\u00a0 You still had to know what you were looking for.\u00a0\u00a0The next evolution brought \u201cX-Ray Identification\u201d.<\/p>\n

As orthopaedic surgeons and\u00a0operating room\u00a0nurses know only too well, removing implants can be tricky and is not always as easy to do as the x-ray might \u201csuggest\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Various rods have a variety of cap screws, removal threads, locking screws, etc.\u00a0 You must have compatible instruments.\u00a0\u00a0If you are revising a total joint replacement implant and don\u2019t need to revise all components, it is essential to know the brand and model of the device.\u00a0\u00a0That way you can match compatible components and preserve that which seems better left in place than removed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always good to get the operative notes from the original surgery, but too often they don\u2019t describe the implants.\u00a0\u00a0The best source I\u2019ve seen are the implant package labels that the OR nurse affixes to the operating room record, but they are not always available either.<\/p>\n

For these reasons, at the suggestion of an orthopaedic professor, we started collecting x-ray images of identified implants on OrthopaedicList.com a few years ago.\u00a0\u00a0Since this is something that will always be evolving and since we wish to provide free access to our colleagues throughout the world, we chose the Internet as our venue.\u00a0\u00a0Our library of implants has grown quite a bit, but to reach its true potential it needs to grow a lot more.\u00a0\u00a0To do so, we need your help.\u00a0 Why would you wish to go to the trouble?<\/p>\n

1. More devices\u00a0are being\u00a0implanted in younger as well as older patients.\u00a0\u00a0Many will live into old age.\u00a0\u00a0When the time comes to do something, records may be unavailable, the surgeon may no longer be in practice, the surgeons and product representatives who could\u00a0\u00a0recognize these implants may be gone, and so on.\u00a0\u00a0By going to our library of X-Rays (\u201cImplant Identification<\/a>\u201c), you have a fighting chance of figuring it out.<\/p>\n

2. Please remember that what is familiar to you in your time and locale may very well be unfamiliar to someone else in another place or time.\u00a0\u00a0Thus, we are not just looking for what you consider uncommon, but we\u2019re looking for what you implant in your everyday practice.<\/p>\n

3. Some implant companies have their own library of images of their implants, but they are predominantly specific to their implants and not necessarily available to everyone.<\/p>\n

4. Privacy rules are making it harder to obtain records, even with signed releases from our patients.\u00a0\u00a0I know about that from experience.<\/p>\n

5. The world population is aging and people move around.\u00a0\u00a0There will be more and more people with implants.\u00a0\u00a0Add those and you\u2019ll realize that a growing number will need second surgeries in places different from the original hospitals.<\/p>\n

6. The educational benefit has been an unanticipated bonus.\u00a0\u00a0We have word that nurse and technical schools use our images to train their students.\u00a0\u00a0We hear that medical schools in some countries do the same.\u00a0\u00a0We even know of at least one large orthopaedic manufacturer who uses our service to train their new representatives.\u00a0 Furthermore, surgeons can send their patients to the site to see what various implants look like, including some cases that they have performed.<\/p>\n

7. Those who give presentations need illustrations for their slides.\u00a0\u00a0You\/they can copy the images from\u00a0\u201cImplant Identification<\/a>\u201d for those presentations.<\/p>\n

8. You can post \u201cunknowns\u201d yourself in hope that our colleagues will help you identify your inherited, troublesome implants.<\/p>\n

So, how does one submit an x-ray?\u00a0\u00a0Go to\u00a0www.orthopaediclist.com<\/a>\u00a0and \u201croll over\u201d \u201cImplant Identification\u201d on the blue navigation bar near the top of the page.\u00a0\u00a0Click on \u201cSubmit an X-Ray<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The rest should be easy.\u00a0\u00a0If you have problems, please let us know at\u00a0info@orthopaediclist.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oh, what about HIPPA and patient privacy?\u00a0 Before submitting images, please crop out any information that may identify the patient.\u00a0 That way we protect patient privacy. \u00a0We have a legal opinion that Implant Identification does NOT violate HIPPA policy.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your help.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019re all in this together to the benefit of our patients.<\/p>\n

Dr.\u00a0\u00a0Hundley is a retired orthopaedic surgeon with forty years of experience.\u00a0\u00a0He is the president and a founder of\u00a0OrthopaedicList.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Having been in the orthopaedic profession for a long time, I have occasionally been confronted with an implant that I did not recognize and either did not have enough time or was unable to find out what it was.\u00a0\u00a0Who hasn\u2019t seen or heard of a bent femoral rod from trauma?\u00a0\u00a0How […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nImplant Identification: An Opportunity for You to Participate - OrthopaedicLIST.com Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.orthopaediclist.com\/blog\/implant-identification-an-opportunity-for-you-to-participate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Implant Identification: An Opportunity for You to Participate - 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