Health: Bionic Knee
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There's a promising new treatment for knee pain using electric stimulation. Some are even calling it a bionic knee. 3 On Your Side Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has the details on how it may help many patients avoid surgery altogether.
Oh those achy knees. They're wearing out fast, and a growing problem for millions of Americans.
66-year-old Lynne Tarvyd knows the feeling. She suffers from osteoarthritis of the knee.
"I could hardly walk. I was having to use a cane. Couldn't do stairs; I have a two story house. So yeah it just got progressively worse," said Lynne.
Facing knee replacement, Lynne is trying a knee brace instead. It's called O-Active from BioniCare. Lynne wears the battery powered sleeve for six to eight hours a day.
Dr. Frederic Nicola, an Orthopedic Surgeon, who offers the brace to his patients described how it works while pointing to an x-ray, "The brace is going to open up this space. So the bone doesn't rub on the bone here. It unloads the knee joint which gives immediate pain relief. There's also electrical fields that re-stimulate and re-grow cartilage by turning back on cartilage cells which as we get older, and as we develop arthritis start to lose their function."
Lynne's been wearing the bionic brace for about eight months, and it's making a difference.
"I don't like not wearing it because of the support it gives me," said Lynne.
"Four year studies have shown 60 percent of people that wear this actually defer the total knee replacement," said Dr. Nicola.
And that's the case for Lynne, she no longer needs surgery.
"It's made me mobile. It's made it much easier for me to walk around and do the things I like to do," said Lynne.
Again the brace is for people with osteoarthritis. It's FDA approved.
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