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Zimmer MIS Quad-Sparing Knee Replacement Procedure
Link
http://www.zimmer.com/z/ctl/op/global/action/1/id/9329/template/CP
WARSAW, IN January 10, 2006 - Zimmer Holdings, Inc.
(NYSE and SWX: ZMH), a leader in the orthopaedics industry, announced today that
its Minimally Invasive Solutions™ (MIS™ ) Quad-Sparing™ Knee Replacement
Procedure is the subject of an orthopaedic journal article that concludes that
Zimmer minimally invasive knee replacement techniques provide superior economic
and patient clinical benefits, including average hospital profitability of
nearly $3,000 per patient. The study compared Zimmer MIS procedures to
traditional total knee arthroplasty procedures.
The authors describe potentially "staggering" savings to the healthcare system,
and state that if 10% of standard knee replacements were converted to Zimmer
minimally invasive knee replacement procedures, the inpatient hospital cost of
treating Medicare beneficiaries could decline by nearly $200 million annually. "
In the article, which will appear in the upcoming issue of "Seminars in
Arthroplasty," lead author Thomas M. Coon, M.D., describes a number of benefits
associated with minimally invasive knee procedures, such as reductions in
hospital resource utilization - including reductions in hospital length of stay
and in blood transfusions - and improvements in immediate post-operative
mobility and range of motion. Dr. Coon is the director of the Orthopedic
Surgical Institute, Red Bluff, California. Co-authors are Alfred J. Tria, Jr.,
M.D., New Brunswick, New Jersey; Carlos Lavernia, MD, Miami, Florida; and Leon
Randall, RN, Red Bluff, California.
"The clinical and economic benefits of minimally invasive hip replacement have
been established in the literature, and we believed that minimally invasive knee
replacement would produce the same positive results," said Dr. Coon. "In a group
of 159 patients we evaluated, our findings clearly support that thesis - we saw
blood transfusion requirements drop from 34% to 4% and early range of motion
increase from 48.6 degrees to 68.6 degrees. Patients walked three times further
at the third post-op day - 176 feet versus 58 feet. Length of hospital stay
dropped two and a half days during the initial evaluation of this procedure,
from 5.9 days to 3.4 days, and in my more recent experience the average length
of stay is just over one day. Average hospital net margin, based on an analysis
of Medicare reimbursement levels and hospital costs for over 400 Zimmer
minimally invasive knee replacement patients, was almost $3,000 per surgery."
According to Zimmer Chairman, President and CEO Ray Elliott, the article's
findings support the direction the Company has taken in the area of MIS joint
replacement. "We established a leadership position in applying minimally
invasive concepts to joint replacement because we saw it as a win-win-win for
patients, hospitals and those who pay for their health care," Elliott said. "We
believe that hospitals can enable significant benefits for their patients while
at the same time lowering their costs of providing care and improving their
profits specifically on Medicare patients. As the authors indicate, that has
tremendous potential ramifications for generating savings in the health care
delivery system. Minimally invasive surgery and implants, which are premium
priced, can provide superior patient outcomes at lower cost, and these are
permanent cost reductions to the system, not the mere cost-shifting and
potential conflicts between stakeholders likely associated with programs such as gainsharing."
In Dr. Coon's hospital, St. Elizabeth Community Hospital, Red Bluff, California,
an operating room has been added and minimally invasive surgical protocols were
implemented. The resulting improvements in total knee replacement surgery
facilitated consistency in surgical technique and reduced waiting time between
procedure steps, yielding a more efficient operating room with a higher volume
of patients treated.
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