Device twice as strong as any other shoulder repair.
Paul Brady is a down-to-earth guy, practical and enterprising. He’s also a board-certified orthopedic surgeon at Parkwest Medical Center who has invented a shoulder implant that is twice as strong as any other repair technique in existence for the Acromio-Clavicular (AC) joint. He’s pretty low-key about that, too.
Close up of Dog Bone Implant
“Want to see one?” Brady asked, fishing his car keys from a pants pocket. The quarter-inch-long metal implant dangles from a string to his key fob, and by virtue of its shape is called the “Dog-Bone.”
A sports fan, Brady graduated with honors from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. During his residency at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, he was assistant team physician for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team. His sports medicine background inspired the Dog Bone when Brady learned of the AC joint injury suffered by Oklahoma Sooners quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford in 2009. AC joint dislocation is a relatively common injury in football and hockey players. Similar injuries have affected NFL quarterback Eli Manning and Michigan’s quarterback Tate Forcier. “Conventional repair to this type of injury involves drilling 4- to 6-millimeter holes in the clavicle (collarbone), which weakens the bone, involves persistent pain during recovery and has a mediocre success rate. I knew there had to be a better way,” Brady said. So he headed to Home Depot.
Parkwest orthopedic surgeon Paul Brady uses a medical model of the human shoulder to show where Dog Bone implant would be placed.
Brady purchased several metal washers at the home supply retailer and went to work in his garage, milling a prototype which would become the Dog Bone. Then, he tested the Dog Bone on fake shoulder bones, and results were outstanding. The concept was pitched to Arthrex, a company that specializes in orthopedic products and education. With input from Brady, Arthrex engineers tweaked the design, which now has been perfected and is in the process of being patented. The first Dog Bone implant was released in April 2010 on a limited basis. Brady expects wide distribution within coming months.
“There are a couple of major benefits of using the Dog Bone,” Brady explained. “First, it’s an arthroscopic procedure that involves three 1/4-inch incisions which is a significantly decreased risk from open surgery. The holes that are drilled into the bone are so much smaller than conventional repair that four times less bone is removed.”
Brady said that with shoulder or AC separations, the joint between the collarbone and shoulder blade is injured. The ligaments and capsule connecting the bones can be injured to variable degrees depending upon the severity of the injury. It is commonly caused by a fall directly on the “point” of the shoulder. This type of injury can cause significant pain and tenderness at the front of the shoulder joint, especially when an athlete attempts overhead movements such as throwing. Diagnosis is made with a physical exam and x-rays.
“Sometimes, the patient will notice something sticking up in his or her shoulder,” Brady said. “The Dog Bone implant is a type of washer that will secure the clavicle back down to its the body’s torn ligaments to heal.”
“With surgery and this implant, patients will experience improved function, improved, if not eliminated, pain and get back to sport within six months,” Brady said. Brady performed the first Dog Bone implant in July. The patient is recovering well.