Slidell Memorial Stays Up-To-Date With Latest Orthopedic Care Technologies

A Patient’s Guide to the hana® Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Table

Slidell Memorial Hospital is fully committed to providing the best orthopedic care possible for our patients, and that means staying up-to-date with the latest technology innovations.

Our recent investment in the new hana^® Arthroplasty Table - one of just 100 in use across the country - is a perfect example, but we readily admit its value is easier for doctors to understand than patients. In fact, if you look at the photo, you might think it’s downright scary!

Actually, the hana^® Arthroplasty Table is anything but scary. It’s a remarkable device that makes it possible for our orthopedic surgeons to offer patients superior care.

In an effort to help our orthopedic patients understand how and why the services we provide at SMH are better than they can get at other facilities, here’s a "Patient’s Guide” to this ground-breaking technology.

Orthopedic Surgery Terms You Should Know

To really understand why the hana^® Arthroplasty Table is so helpful to orthopedic surgeons, you first need to understand some basic medical terms:

· Adduction - movement of a limb toward the midline of the body. The opposite of adduction is abduction.

· Anterior - nearer the front, especially situated in the front of the body or nearer to the head.

· Arthroplasty- (literally "surgical repair of joint") an elective orthopedic surgery that is done to relieve pain and restore function to the joint after damage by arthritis or some other type of trauma.

· External rotation – turning a limb (in this case, the leg) on its long axis away from the midline of the body

· Hyperextension - Extension of a joint beyond its normal range of motion.

Ease of Mobility Means Less-Invasive Surgery

All of the above terms refer to the ways orthopedic surgeons need to move the body in order to perform a variety of surgical procedures more easily. Just look at the photograph and try to imagine a surgeon attempting those movements using a flatter more solid surgical table.

The beauty of the hana^® Arthroplasty Table is that it allows so much more freedom of movement than traditional surgical tables. This improves anterior hip access making it possible for surgeons to make a smaller incision and allowing them to complete the procedure without detaching muscle from the pelvis or femur. As a result, the patient's hospital stay can be as short as two to four days, which is roughly half the time they might spend in the hospital recovering from similar procedures done without this table.

In fact, the Anterior Approach to Total Hip Arthroplasty (AA THA) has become the procedure of choice for many surgeons and patients alike. Since 2005, the hana^® Orthopedic Table has been used to successfully position patients in thousands of these procedures. Knowing it is a vital instrument for the procedure, surgeons are reluctant to attempt the AA THA without a hana^® Table.

Procedures Best Suited to the hana^® Table

- Anterior Approach Total Hip Arthroplasty
- Hip Arthroscopy
- Anterior Hip Resurfacing
- Femur Fracture
- IM Nailing Femur
- Hip Fracture
- Hip Pinning
- Tibia Fracture
- IM Nailing Tibia
- Total Knee Arthroplasty

We hope you now have a better understanding of the capabilities and benefits of the hana^® Orthopedic Table:

· Improved mobility and access

· Less-invasive procedures with smaller incisions

· Shorter recovery times and hospital stays

· Instrument of choice for the Anterior Approach to Total Hip Arthroplasty

However, if you still have questions about the table, the above procedures, or any of our other orthopedic services here at Slidell Memorial Hospital, contact us to schedule a consultation.

As a 229-bed acute care hospital located in the heart of Slidell, LA, Slidell Memorial Hospital provides access to orthopedic services, as well as the latest treatments, technology and expert physicians.