Owner’s Manual for my Radial Head

I now have an owner’s manual for a part of my body.

I made an access request for the surgical notes from my radial head replacement operation in August. It was from these notes that I learned what had been installed in my elbow:

On the back table, we assembled the Wright Medical Evolve 24 mm standard head and the 7.5 mm standard neck. 

Wright Medical was founded in 1950:

Started in 1950 by orthopaedic salesman and innovator Frank O. Wright, our first product was an “all-rubber walking heel” for leg casts – an original conception of the founder. From there, the product offering was quickly expanded to include orthopaedic implants and instrumentation as well as soft goods, like arm slings and splints.

By the time of Frank Wright’s death in 1975, orthopaedic implants and instrumentation had been firmly established as the foundation of the business. Within a few short years, our soft goods lines slowly disappeared and we were ready to forge ahead as a dedicated provider of orthopaedic surgical solutions.

After Wright died, the company was acquired by Dow Corning in 1977; it went through a series of ownership changes over the decades until its acquisition by Stryker in 2020.

You may recognize the name “Stryker” from the adjustable beds in hospitals, although that’s but a slice of its business, a business that includes pretty well everything medical (Catherine died in a Stryker bed, so it’s a brand name seared into my brain).

The Wright Medical Evolve that was installed in my right arm has an installation manual for surgeons, something I like to think of as an “owner’s manual” for this new part of my body:

The Evolve Radial Head prosthesis was designed to reduce abnormal kinematics and therefore problems with articular wear and pain and utilizes a spacer concept with a smooth stem. The smooth stem can move slightly in the proximal radius so that the radial head tracks with the articular surfaces, reducing abnormal kinematics and therefore problems with articular wear and pain.

The manual has a chart of the sizes of radial head available; I’ve highlighted mine:

I wear (embed?) a mid-range head and stem.

There is a very detailed description for surgeons on how to install the new head and stem, filled with language like:

Grasp the trial stem with the trial stem handle so that the handle sits below the trial head. Insert the trial stem into the medullary canal. Screw the trial head onto the trial head handle. Holding the trial head handle in line with the trial stem handle, slide the trial head over the trial stem platform.

That page has a diagram that illustrates the procedure:

It’s weird to consider that was all being done to my elbow while I was under anaesthetic.

The most bracing parts of the owner’s manual come at the introduction:

• The patient should be advised that the device cannot and does not replicate a normal healthy bone, that the device can break or become damaged as a result of strenuous activity or trauma and that the device has a finite expected service life.
• Removal or revision of the device may be required sometime in the future.

Time will tell whether I’ll wear this radial head out, or whether it will get me through the rest of my life.