Dignity Health | St. Rose Dominican | Reach | Spring 2018

6 StRoseHospitals.org Sam Thomas, baseball coach at Las Vegas High School, knows how important having the right equipment is to sports success. For him, that includes two custom knee implants. When Sam first considered knee replacement at the age of 52 to relieve the pain of osteoarthritis, he thought maybe he was too young. He’d heard he should wait until he was at least 55. But advances in total knee replacement convinced him otherwise, and today he’s really happy with his custom implants. He got his right knee replaced in June 2015—and then his left in August 2017. Move forward with confidence. Find an orthopedic surgeon who does custom knee replacements at St. Rose Dominican by calling 702.616.4900 . A perfect fit In the past, orthopedic surgeons had to rely on “off-the-shelf ” knee implants from a range of standard sizes, says Roddy McGee, DO (pictured above with Sam). That required surgeons to adjust the bones in the joint to fit the implant. Today, Dr. McGee uses implants that are customized specifically for the patient—the ConforMIS customized knee implant. How does it work? A CT scan of the patient’s knee is converted to a 3-D model. It’s used to design an implant to match the knee precisely. The custom fit follows the shape and contour of each patient’s knee—so the bone doesn’t have to be altered as much to make it fit. After surgery, these custom knees feel more natural and cause less pain than standard implants. Sam’s advice? “Don’t wait—get it done,” he says. “Less bone is being removed, so even if I do have to have a knee replacement again sometime in the future, I’d feel very comfortable doing it. In fact, the second replacement actually felt better quicker than the first.” One coach’s game plan: Get it done! A kinder and custom approach to knee replacement