GraMedica, and the research team of Dr. Lukas Kolodziej, Dr. Rodney K. Summers and Dr. Michael E. Graham, is pleased to announce a groundbreaking study showing how Extra-Osseous Talotarsal Stabilization (EOTTS) can substantially reduce or possibly eliminate a leading cause of knee misalignment and arthritis.
GraMedica reports, the first of its kind, the study measured the in vivo forces acting within the medial knee compartment, before and after EOTTS. Millions of people suffer from chronic knee pain and every year that number continues to grow. Typically treatments are focused on pain relief or localized surgery to the knee. Pain relief does not eliminate or reduce the cause of knee pain. The results of conservative care, and even knee surgery, provide temporary relief; and these patients continue to have pain, or eventually have a recurrence of pain. What the research team found had been often overlooked in the treatment of knee pain, was misaligned feet.
Hindfoot misalignment, or talotarsal joint (TTJ) instability, occurs when the ankle bone partially dislocates on the heel bone. The naturally occurring space between the two bones, the sinus tarsi, should always be “open” just like an artery that carries blood throughout the body. While the link behind ankle bone displacement and knee pain is already known, the issue has been how to realign the ankle bone while still allowing a normal range of motion. With the development of an EOTTS stent – a titanium spacer called HyProCure® – that is placed into the sinus tarsi, the ankle and heel bones are instantly stabilized and realigned.
“The primary goal of knee treatment has always been to provide better stability and alignment. Failure to achieve that treatment goal leads to continued tissue stress on the knee, and continued pain,” says Dr. Kolodziej, the lead researcher in the study. “Many patients have claimed significant relief with their knee pain after the insertion of a type II EOTTS stent and we are pleased that this study confirms the importance of realigning and stabilizing the hindfoot for the prevention and treatment of chronic knee pain.”
The research from this study confirmed that ankle bone displacement leads to increased forces on the inner knee, the most common area of knee joint arthritis. The insertion of the HyProCure® titanium spacer/stent reduced the pressure by nearly 33%. This is the very first treatment that has shown this kind of reduction of pressure.