Intellijoint Surgical, a Waterloo-based company which develops miniature surgical smart tools, has received Food and Drug Administration clearance for its intellijoint HIP.
The intellijoint HIP is made for surgeons that work on restoring function in a hip joint, a procedure known as total hip arthroplasty. The idea is to provide surgeons with intraoperative measurements that enable establishment of cup position, equalization of leg length, and restoration or maintenance of offset and joint centre of rotation.
“Intellijoint was founded in 2010 with the vision of developing and commercializing an innovative technology that is capable of providing real time 3D surgical measurement data, without adding significant time, expense or complexity to surgery,” said Armen Bakirtzian, CEO and co-founder of Intellijoint Surgical. “Now, with FDA clearance of intellijoint HIP, we’ve realized this vision and are ready to bring its benefits to the largest market in the world.”
The company said that the intellijoint HIP can assist in the prevention of recurrent instability, hip dislocation and leg length discrepancy and may expedite decision-making and improve accuracy in achieving preoperative planned targets, which would ultimately improve patient satisfaction and post-op care.
While Intellijoint can look forward to the challenge of establishing itself in the large US health care industry, the company can find at least one happy user in Dr. Wayne Paprosky, a professor and orthopaedic surgeon at Rush Medical Center in Chicago. “With the previous generation of the product, our use showed improved accuracy and precision of implant selection without a significant expense or impact on OR time,” said Dr. Paprosky. “The new generation of intellijoint HIP provides surgeons with additional critical implant alignment measurements including cup inclination and anteversion, which will be a potential game changer of how hip surgery is performed in the U.S.”