| One of Dr Krackow's current major interests in the field of total knee arthroplasty
(or replacement) is the development and implementation of computer assisted total knee surgery.
This includes techniques classified as navigation, and also those involving robots. |
| Dr. Krackow's undergraduate and graduate education in mathematics, and an interest in computer science became a
natural platform for the performance of total knee replacement research that led to the development of
a system for computer assisted total knee replacement. The world's first publication of a complete
total knee replacement on an actual patient was authored and led by Dr. Krackow. This background work led
to the development of a commercially available infrared computer assisted total knee navigation system distributed
by the Stryker Corporation of Kalamazoo, Michigan. |
| Some of the first robotically executed total knee replacements performed in Europe were the direct
result of Dr. Krackow's collaboration with Integrated Surgical Systems of
Davis, California, producers of the RoboDoc Total Hip equipment. Dr. Krackow provided an outline for their
execution software, and facilitated (in Buffalo, New York) the first sessions using adult cadavers; first in the
laboratory, and then in actual operating rooms. Software and Hardware engineers traveled from California,
while a group of orthopaedic surgeons from Germany joined in Buffalo for these sessions. These activities were
the necessary developmental stages for the first uses of this equipment in Germany. |
| These navigational and robotic techniques hold promise for improving the accuracy, reproducibility, and
functionality of total joint replacements. TKR in particular is a procedure in which accuracy of alignment and
component placements to within 1 to 2 degrees and 1 to 2 millimeters is extremely important. |
| Dr. Krackow and his colleague Matthew Phillips, M.D. (also at Buffalo General Hospital) are both involved as
designers of hip and knee prosthetics, and designers of prosthetic instrumentation. |
