{"id":199713,"date":"2023-06-06T07:01:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T11:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=199713"},"modified":"2023-06-06T14:22:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T18:22:44","slug":"uconn-health-leads-patient-on-innovative-path-to-restoring-pain-free-mobility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/06\/uconn-health-leads-patient-on-innovative-path-to-restoring-pain-free-mobility\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Health Leads Patient on Innovative Path to Restoring Pain-Free Mobility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lori Cannon can hike in a heavily wooded area, something that was unthinkable for most of the last two years.<\/p>\n

\"Lori
Lori Cannon, with her grandsons Zachary Roy, 9, and Dustin Remillard, 10, at her Durham home last March, says, “My mobility is so much better and allows me to keep up with my grandkids.” (Photo by Trish Roy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cannon was 63 when she fell from a ladder at her home in Durham in June 2021, severely injuring her left foot. The surgical repair (done elsewhere) and recovery kept her off her feet for months. Her living room became her bedroom so she could avoid stairs. Multiple stints of physical therapy only got her so far. X-rays were showing bone loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the end of December of \u201921, I was in severe pain all the time, could barely walk on this foot,\u201d says Cannon, a principal trainer in UConn Health\u2019s Department of Information Technology. \u201cSo I sought care elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was January 2022 when she started seeing Dr. Lauren Geaney<\/a>, UConn Health foot and ankle surgeon. First order of business was to schedule a surgery to remove the hardware from the original ankle repair to address an underlying infection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what was causing me to have so much pain and swelling and issues, and probably what accelerated my developing arthritis in this ankle,\u201d Cannon says. \u201cMy initial X-rays in June did not show any arthritis. By December, they\u2019re telling me I\u2019ve got severe osteoarthritis in this ankle.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would lead to more time off her feet. When she came back to discuss her options, there weren\u2019t many left.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Lauren Geaney, UConn Health foot and ankle surgeon, is one of the first in the Northeast to successfully complete an ankle replacement using a 3D-printed custom implant. (Photo by Lanny Nagler)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen you have somebody who has advanced arthritis in the ankle, you really have two options: You can fuse it or you can do an ankle replacement,\u201d Geaney says.<\/p>\n

Cannon knew she didn\u2019t want an ankle fusion, which would provide pain relief but at the cost of losing all ankle joint motion and making her more susceptible to arthritis in surrounding joints.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is, to have a successful ankle replacement in, you\u2019d have to have some support; it\u2019s like putting a roof on without the support, it\u2019s just going to collapse,\u201d Geaney says. \u201cThe issue with her fracture was that there was a lot of bone loss, and so we had to come up with a plan that was going to support the implant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geaney brought Cannon\u2019s case to an orthopedics conference in Denver. One recommendation was to use 3D-printing to fabricate the replacement ankle, and with it, additional material to make up for the bone loss and keep the new joint in place.<\/p>\n

\"close-up
The ankle replacement used in Lori Cannon’s surgery January 2023 is made from titanium, titanium nitride, and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene, and was fabricated by device maker Paragon 28 using 3D-printing based on Cannon’s CT scans. (Photo by Tina Encarnacion, anatomic rendering provided by Paragon 28)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt created its own support system within the ankle to give her the option of a total ankle replacement that she wouldn\u2019t have had otherwise,\u201d Geaney says. \u201cThis essentially filled in the defect where she had no bone, almost recreating support within the implant itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geaney worked with a company in Colorado, Paragon 28, to custom-design and produce the specific replacement ankle and surrounding support. It\u2019s made from titanium and a plastic called ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene, with a titanium nitride coating.<\/p>\n

It was somewhat of a surgical gamble. This surgical approach is generally limited to academic medical centers and does not have a long history or significant data on outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be doing X-rays regularly to make sure that it\u2019s not collapsing,\u201d Geaney says. \u201cWe know the materials are good, it\u2019s more just making sure the components aren\u2019t shifting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"woman
Lori Cannon says her ankle replacement surgery at UConn Health “was truly life-changing for me. I was able to go hiking in a heavily wooded area (Mother’s Day weekend) in Maine, which would not have been possible for the past two years since my initial injury.” (Photo provided by Lori Cannon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The custom replacement ankle went in January, and the early results are encouraging. She reported being pain-free after only a few weeks.<\/p>\n

“It’s worked out really, really well,” Cannon says. “It’s lifesaving for me. This has given me back my quality of life, that I would not have had otherwise. Just before she did my surgery to replace this, I was using a crutch on almost a daily basis just to be able to tolerate the pain.”<\/p>\n

Implantable devices that are custom 3D-printed based on a patient\u2019s CT scans are relatively uncommon. Cannon\u2019s case was one of the first procedures of its kind in the Northeast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank Lori for trusting me because this, it\u2019s kind of a whim, and you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re going to get,\u201d Geaney says. \u201cAs medical providers, for people who barely know us to trust us with everything, it takes a lot, and that\u2019s something that we don\u2019t always appreciate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cannon says she knew it would be no sure thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I had any other option,\u201d she says. \u201cSo if I didn\u2019t take the gamble, as time went on, I\u2019d be wheelchair-bound.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for her pain level?<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no pain,\u201d Cannon says. \u201cI can\u2019t remember the last time I took Tylenol for this foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about UConn Health\u2019s foot and ankle care at the UConn Musculoskeletal Institute.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn Health\u2019s Dr. Lauren Geaney finds a solution for what was unsolvable, with a 3D-printed custom ankle replacement. Now her patient is walking again without pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":199709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,2196,2287,1868,2235,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-199713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-middlesex-county","category-orthopedics","category-meds","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 05:32:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199713"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199856,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199713\/revisions\/199856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/199709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199713"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=199713"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=199713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}