Nicolas Pellegrini, an orthopedic surgeon with the Clinipole Group, performed an operation using a state-of-the-art model coupled with a planning system that guides and positions to the nearest millimeter and according to the patient’s anatomy.
In 40 minutes, it was over! As will be done with her right arm by this patient operated on this Friday, June 28 at the Via Domitia clinic in Lunel.
At 58 years old, suffering from debilitating and very painful osteoarthritis, she received an anatomical shoulder prosthesis in the morning and returned home at the end of the afternoon. So far, a rather banal scenario.
Never before installed in France with such a process
Except that the operation, to which Free Midday was able to attend, was a national first on two levels. This type of state-of-the-art prosthesis associated with a planning system had, in fact, never been fitted in France.
And the one who took this new generation intervention head on (!) is Nicolas Pellegrini. At 46 years old, this orthopedic surgeon, who has been practicing privately since 2016 at the Parc clinic in Castelnau-le-Lez and 2018 at the Via Domitia clinic in Lunel – two structures of the Clinipole Group – achieved this feat in one of the operating theaters of the Lunel establishment.
“We really find ourselves facing the patient’s own shoulder”
“With a shoulder scanner, we recreate the precise 3D image of the patient’s anatomy. We really find ourselves facing the patient’s own shoulderexplains the healthcare professional. Then comes the software that plans the positioning and size of the implants. These are operations that are done before the surgery.”
Always before the patient ends up in the operating room, a transfer tool reproduces parameters calculated on said software. They are then transcribed onto a glenoid aiming guide (which concerns the articulated part of the scapula) in order to obtain ultra-precision that has never before been achieved in France.
A prodigious work
After an arthrotomy (opening of the joint), bone cuts and, in this specific case, the removal of part of the worn head of the humerus responsible for this osteoarthritis in the patient operated on this Friday, June 28, “We are tackling what is called “the glenoid phase”, that is to say that we are working on the side of the scapula. It is at this precise moment that the guide takes on its full importancerelate Nicolas Pellegrini. It bears references which resemble letters and numbers which allow the legs of the famous guide to be positioned and therefore to be extremely precise.”
A team specializing in pain relief care
A prodigious work, especially on the shoulder whose joint is known to be very complicated. “The whole point is there because this technique allows us to transfer the position and trajectory of the glenoid guide pin that we had planned to the software preoperatively. To put it simply: from the software to the patient’s personal anatomy”continues the orthopedic surgeon, who followed training with the publisher of the IT tool, which also manufactures prostheses adapted to patients.
One of their consultants and one of their operating room nurses attended the operation in order to prevent any problems.
An operating room nurse, a circulating nurse and an anesthesiologist also surrounded Nicolas Pellegrini. He would say, with a smile, at the end of the intervention which went brilliantly: “It’s a first… routine!”
Full support for social security
A motor routine that the patient will find again with this new shoulder, for the moment supported by a cryotherapy splint, at the end of the rehabilitation. A motor routine that the patient will find again with this new shoulder, for the moment supported by a cryotherapy splint, at the end of the rehabilitation.
Released from the Via Domitia clinic on Friday, June 28, late in the afternoon, she is being treated by a team of experts in home pain relief as well as by a physiotherapist specializing in shoulder exercises and movements. An operation and convalescence fully covered by Social Security.
