Heal Thyself
Frank Kelly knows all about knee replacements. As an orthopaedic
surgeon on staff with the Forsyth Street Orthopaedic Surgery & Rehabilitation
Center in Macon, Georgia, he has implanted thousands into patients,
restoring mobility and reducing disability.
However, his familiarity with knee replacements became even
more personal when his own knee began giving him problems. Dr.
Kelly was an avid jogger, golfer, and hiker. However, he experienced
so much pain due to osteoarthritis, he found even getting through
his work day was difficult. “It had become more painful, and
it was causing me not to do the things I wanted to do,” he recalls.
“By the end of the day, I was beat.”
Realizing he needed to undergo a total knee arthroplasty (replacement),
Dr. Kelly knew the knee he wanted his surgeon to use, the Triathlon
model built by Howmedica Osteonics (now Stryker Orthopaedics).
The Triathlon is a metal on polyethylene, fixed-bearing knee
prosthesis.
Dr. Kelly was familiar with this particular model because he
was part of the 12-member medical and research team that helped
create the implant over a five-year period. His specific contribution
was to help improve the minimally invasive techniques to implant
the device, to improve the range of motion of the implant, and
to ensure that the materials used in the device were both safe
and long lasting.
Implanting the knee in December of 2006 was a fellow member
of the Triathlon knee system research team, Dr. Carl Savory of
the Hughston Orthopedic Hospital in Columbus, Georgia. After
the surgery, Dr. Kelly immediately began rigorous physical therapy.
His return to pain-free mobility surprised everyone, including
himself. “Anything I want to do [I can],” he says. However, “the
one thing I am leery about is running again. That is one thing
I will never return to.”
That is, until he builds the knee that will allow it.