Patient Cyrano Back Home
After Pioneering CVM Surgery

Cyrano, a cancer-surviving 10-year-old cat, is back home in Upperville, Va. following the success of a total knee replacement surgery -- the first-of-its-kind for a feline -- at North Carolina State University's Randall B. Terry, Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center.

Cyrano was briefly standing on his leg within a day of the operation but will need to rest for about a week. Owner Sandy Lerner will need to restrict Cyrano's activities for some three months before the cat, that weighs some 20 pounds, will be allowed to resume full, unsupervised activity.

Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little, professor of orthopedics at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, led a team of four other surgeons in the nearly six-hour surgery on Jan. 26 to replace the knee on Cyrano's hind leg. As in human knee replacement, Cyrano’s state-of-the-art knee will provide a full range of natural motion unavailable in previous feline knee replacement surgeries.

The NC State surgery is considered unique because the replacement prosthetic knee was custom-made for Cyrano and implanted through a technique that fuses engineered components into the leg. The process, called osseointegration, creates a strong, permanent bond between living bone and the titanium implant that is anchored into the bone—similar to the way an artificial tooth is anchored into the jaw.

The procedure culminated eight months of collaboration involving high tech 3-D computer design, unique component engineering, complex manufacturing, and technical surgery skills that required contributions from veterinarians and engineers from around the U.S. and abroad. The minute size of the intricate components increased the complexity of the design, engineering, and fabrication of the knee joint and the components which extended into the bone on both sides of the prosthetic knee.