Uni Knee Finds Solid Ground in Tarpon Springs

Alan Graves, MD, of Palm Harbor, Vincent Kiesel, MD, of Tarpon Springs, and Gordon Zuerndorfer, MD, of Clearwater, FL, are performing the Uni Knee procedure, a partial knee replacement, exclusively at Florida Hospital North Pinellas. 

The Uni Knee partial knee replacement conserves two-thirds of the knee when compared to a total knee replacement. 

Drs Graves, Kiesel and Zuerndorfer join doctors from across the country in using this bone and soft tissue conserving procedure to provide patients a solution for knee pain before disease progresses to the whole knee.

Osteoarthritis affecting the cartilage of the knee can require a total knee replacement, which replaces all three compartments of the knee and the ACL.The Uni Knee allows patients that catch the disease early enough to keep the healthy portions of their knee and ACL. 

The procedure allows for greater flexibility of the knee, according to experts. 

“The Uni Knee is a great solution for patients with isolated disease in one compartment of their knee,” said Dr. Graves, Orthopedic Surgeon. “Patients sometimes believe they need to wait until they are older or until the pain progresses to have surgery, but using performing the Uni Knee, it enables me to renew their lives and get them back to the activities that they might be giving up due to the pain in their knee.”

According to Florida Hospital North Pinellas, the Uni Knee has a 98 percent cumulative success rate at 10 years, which is one of the highest success rates seen in unicompartmental knees to date.