Gold Knee

Gold Knee

•3 min read•Gold Knee

Not everything that glitters is gold!

 

Gold Knee! The Gold Knee implants for Total Knee Replacement: Are they worth the hype about them?

  1. Is the Gold Knee actually made of Gold?

No. It is not. The standard knee implants are typically made of a cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy for the cup on the thigh bone side and the titanium alloy plate on the leg bone side. These are fixed to the bone typically by using bone cement. 

The Gold Knee is made of the same material but gets coated with a thin, hard, and inert layer—usually Titanium Niobium Nitride (TiNbN) or Titanium Nitride (TiN). This lining is shiny and glitters like gold. There is NO actual “Gold” in these implants. 

  1. Is Gold Knee suitable for me?

Gold Knee is necessary for a small percent of the population who are known to have proven nickel allergy. As there is a small amount of Nickel in the standard knee implants, that may potentially cause allergic reaction and inflammation and pain in the knees post surgery. Hence in those people Gold Knee is the right option to go with. 

  1. Is Gold Knee going to perform better than the standard Knee implants?

No. There is no evidence to prove that. In terms of longevity, friction, pain profile, range of movement and risk of infection the Gold Knees have proven to work in the same way as the standard Knee implants. Although certain sources claim better lifespan for the Gold Knee, there is no Level 1 or 2 evidence to prove that. 

  1. Are there any disadvantages to the Gold Knee implants?

Yes, the cost of the Gold knee is more than that of the standard knee implants. There are no added advantages to the Gold knee to justify the extra cost of these implants. 

Hence, the choice of implants should be based on the long term good quality evidence for the use of a particular type of implant. There are a lot of newer implants such as uncemented knee implants, ceramic knee implants etc that get advertised as the ground breaking advanced technologies. It is important for you to understand the risks of trying out something new and not well tested implants.