No Need for Gender-Specific Knees for Women Study

By Dr. Timothy Brox

The study presented at the AAOS 2008 meeting suggests that the regular implants don't produce worse outcomes for women after all. It examined records from almost 21,000 people - more than 13,000 women and over 7,000 men, both about 68 years old on average.

After surgery, the two genders' range of motion, pain scores, and rate of revision (do-over surgeries) were similar. "There is no scientific evidence that women aren't doing as well as men," says Timothy Brox, an orthopedic surgeon with Kaiser Permanente in Fresno, Calif., and an author of the study. And if the existing outcomes are fine, that means there's no use for a gender-specific implant.