The Use of Customized Total Knee Arthroplasty Implants to Increase Efficiency in the Operating Room and Improve Patient Outc

Operating room efficiency during surgical procedures saves time and money, reduces waste of hospital resources and improves staff morale. Surgical efficiency in orthopaedic surgery can decrease medical complications, such as periprosthetic infection and venous thromboembolic disease, but also must be associated with equivalent or improved longer term patient reported outcomes. In total knee arthroplasty, the instruments used for bone preparation are excessive in number, are frequently redundant, and rely upon achieving average alignment and rotational parameters. As a result, approximately 15-25% of patients report dissatisfaction with their knee reconstructions. Patient specific customized instruments and patient specific implants improve intraoperative efficiency by reducing surgical steps and eliminating redundant steps. Further, because the customized instruments and implants provide anatomic reconstruction of each individual patient, patient reported outcomes have been higher. Additional demonstrated benefits include improved knee alignment and knee kinematics. This paper addresses the various sources of operating room inefficiency, provides suggestions to overcome them, and discusses the first decade of experience with the customized guides for customized implants as a method to improve efficiency.