Interview with Mr Ronan Treacy MB ChB, MD, FRCS, FRCS Orth

We took the opportunity to speak to Mr Ronan Treacy, co-inventor with Prof Derek McMinn, MD FRCS of the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing™ (BHR™) and the PolyMotion® Hip Resurfacing (PHR®). Mr Treacy is also a valued surgeon advisor to JointMedica.

Q. Mr Treacy, can you tell us a bit more about Hip Resurfacing versus a Total Hip Replacement?

We now have good evidence to demonstrate Hip Resurfacing offers hip arthroplasty surgeons an option, which has distinct advantages over Primary Total Hip Replacements in four key areas;

• Hip Resurfacing preserves the patient’s bone for any potential future surgeries;

• Hip Resurfacing recipients maintain a higher level of activity when compared to Total Hips;

• The Hip Resurfacing patients return to a normal gait pattern and a natural range of motion because of the procedure;

• There is also the contentious, but highly relevant issues of mortality comparisons between Hip Resurfacing and primary hip arthroplasty procedures.

Q. Metal-on-Metal Hip Resurfacing is no longer indicated for use in females, and restricted further to remove the smaller component sizes, how did you feel about this?

When you consider our previous Hip Resurfacing design in isolation, I believe the Orthopaedic community and the wider industry, in general, threw the baby out with the bathwater. Our active female population were left without any resurfacing options and smaller active males were forced to receive total hip replacements. On reflection this was not surprising considering poorer performance in registry data of resurfacing as a whole and inevitable association with catastrophic metal/metal Total Hip Replacements.

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Q. Can you tell us a bit more about the new PolyMotion® Hip Resurfacing system (PHR®)?

Derek and I have worked closely with JointMedica during the last 7 years to recover this position. We have created an intuitive system that puts all patients irrespective of gender or stature to be considered for resurfacing.

I am happy to say we have arrived at the final design which incorporates the latest materials and manufacturing techniques based on our design experience in this space, as well as our significant clinical experience in treating thousands of Hip Resurfacing patients over the years. JointMedica’s proprietary process to bond Titanium particulate directly to Vitamin E highly crosslinked polyethylene has proven to be decisive in our ability to re-enter the Hip Resurfacing market with a safe and predictable implant.

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Q. What are the next steps required to position the PHR® on the European Market?

As you are aware the regulatory landscape in Europe has changed significantly! Clinical Investigations following the rigorous new standards set by the MDR take a tremendous amount of time, elevated levels of organisation, approvals, as well as a huge expense. It is for this reason we are now happy to be partnering with Exactech to enable us to capture data critical in supporting our application for CE marking.

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We would like to thank Mr Treacy for taking time to speak to us.

It has been noted that increasing geriatric population worldwide is expected to drive the global “Hip Resurfacing Implants Market Growth” in the foreseeable future and JointMedica is a key player in this strengthen market.