Bioengineering Laboratory: Visualizing Patient-Specific Kinematics for Hip and Knee Arthroplasty

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In this video, Young-Min Kwon, MBBS, PhD, director of the Bioengineering Laboratory in Mass General's Department of Orthopaedics, discusses how the laboratory is working to improve outcomes for patients with failing hip and knee replacements by visualizing the kinematics of the implant while the patients perform functional activities.  

Transcript

At the Bioengineering Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, we have a very long and proud tradition of excellence in innovative research in order to optimize or improve the outcomes of patients with failing hip and knee replacements. Our current focus of our research at the moment is to really visualize or quantify the kinematics of the hip and knee prosthesis after it’s been implanted in the patients while the patients perform functional activities.

Currently, the standard, the test that we use such as a plain radiograph or CT scan or MRI scan, they're all actually taken while the patient is stationary. At our laboratory, we utilize a very innovative research technique, which is a non-invasive imaging tool, which allows us to visualize the kinematics of both hip and knee replacement implants in patients while patients perform functional activities. These include gait or walking, rising from a chair or stair climbing. And we have actually learned for example, in terms of total knee arthroplasty, the importance of trying to mimic the kinematics of native knee following total knee arthroplasty, which is a challenge. We also are learning that there is a significant variation from patient to patient.

Secondly, in the case of total hip arthroplasty, what we're also learning is the importance that the position or optimal position to which we should place components may differ from the standard information that we've been using, which is a planned radiograph. We're learning the importance of considering or taking into consideration a much more functional orientation such as when a patient is standing up, which does take into consideration any spine or pelvic movement. I think in the coming years we're trying to get more understanding of how we can actually make this information translate into optimizing the component orientation in patients with a total hip arthroplasty.

Learn more about the Bioengineering Laboratory

Refer a patient to the Department of Orthopaedics