Exactech this week announced the first successful surgeries using its Equinoxe Laser Cage Glenoid in a shoulder implant procedure.
The first procedures were completed in Jacksonville, Florida at the Mayo Clinic and in Fort Collins, Colorado at the Orthopedic and Spine Center of the Rockies. Two of the product’s design surgeons – Drs. Bradley Schoch and Sean Grey – performed the procedures using the new glenoid implant.
Gainesville, Florida-based Exactech designed Equinoxe to improve glenoid fixation in anatomic total shoulder arthroplasty. It has standard and augmented options and features a central bone cage and three peripheral cage pegs that are titanium, porous and 3D-printed.
“I am impressed by the mechanical strength of this unique hybrid design,” Grey said in a news release. “Mechanical bench testing has demonstrated the remarkable strength of the 3D printed porous cage pegs, which offer the potential for bone through-growth and better fixation relative to all-polyethylene glenoids.”
The company manufacturers its 3D printed cage pegs directly to the backside of the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) articular surface so that there is no mechanical locking mechanism. Exactech said preclinical testing of the implant demonstrated the device successfully withstood cyclic loading at about 850 lbs when implanted 5 mm proud, simulating a glenoid that is not fully seated.
“The Laser Cage Glenoid is provided in multiple sizes of posterior augments, which helps me preserve bone. The wedge-augmented implant design minimizes reaming when correcting glenoid deformity,3 and the porous cage peg design provides excellent initial fixation,” Grey said.