Knee Treatment & Replacement

Knee arthritis is a common pain as we age. “Especially with knees, you need it, so it’s not like you’re going to be able to stay off of it because whenever you walk, it gets worse,” said independent Orthopedic Surgeon practicing at Lee Health Dr. John Thompson.

Many turn to knee replacements once the pain starts to affect their quality of life. Now some of those replacements are getting a smart upgrade. “This is what the bottom half of a normal knee replacement looks like, and this piece attaches to the end of it. This is going inside the bone, inside where the knee replacement is,” said Dr. Thompson.

The smart knee has a built in chip that uploads data to the cloud. “The length or stride contract. The range of motion after surgery. Your gait speed, so how fast somebody is walking,” said Dr. Thompson. It’s basically like having a physical therapist with you 24/7 to measure these things that normally we like to see with your recovery process.”

It allows doctors to remotely track someone’s recovery in greater detail. “Now being able to see it online at any time, if there’s something that is worrisome, you can bring them in sooner and see if there’s something going on. If there is an issue, you can hopefully fix it sooner,” said Dr. Thompson. The smart knee doesn’t track your position. Both the doctor and patient can see the data.

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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.