Stryker partners with local researchers to advance shoulder joint surgery

MedTech & Diagnostics News: Joint replacement is a commonly performed major surgical procedure that has considerable success in alleviating pain and disability. Aimed at improving shoulder joint surgery and reducing surgical revision rates, Dr Maxence Lavaill from QUT School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering has been awarded an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship of $160,000 with industry partner Stryker.

At least 2000 total shoulder replacements were conducted in Queensland alone last year. Dr Lavaill (above) will focus on developing a novel in-silico musculoskeletal simulation tool for shoulder joint surgery.

“Shoulder implant surgery records the largest failure rate amongst all human joints – 15% of patients have to return to theatre after failure of their shoulder implant, whereas hip joint replacement revisions are at five per cent,” Dr Lavaill said.

“This revision rate causes negative effects on patients’ health and high social and economic impacts. Shoulder function is driven largely by joint forces exerted through muscle contractions. As current surgical planning accounts only for bone with no consideration of muscles, implementing and predicting muscle actions in the surgery planning process has the potential to improve these high shoulder implant failure rates,” he explained.

Dr Lavaill’s project aims to reduce revision rates by developing an automated, holistic approach to shoulder surgery planning which involves the patient’s specific muscle function as well as their bone structure.

“Central to this approach is the development of cutting-edge, musculoskeletal models validated using instrumented-implant data from patients who have undergone shoulder implant surgery,” he said. “This will allow us to robustly test implant designs and evaluate their performance in restoring patient function.”

The collaboration between Stryker and ARC Training Centre for Joint Biomechanics will allow for the developed models to assist the company in producing the next generation of surgical planning software on a sound and evidence-based simulation-driven design for shoulders.

“This will ultimately enhance the implant’s performance and longevity as well as improve patients’ quality of life,” Dr Lavaill said.

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