Compact, single-use, and simple-to-use technology offers surgeons a fast, reliable navigation solution for hip arthroplasty

LONDON, April 12 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smith+Nephew (LSE:SN, NYSE:SNN), the global medical technology company, announced an agreement with NAVBIT to exclusively distribute the NAVBIT SPRINT™ in Australia during the recent Australian Orthopedics Association COE Meeting in Sydney. A single-use, sterile navigation system with everything provided in a small carton, NAVBIT SPRINT™ is designed to suit busy surgeons - and its convenient product format makes it extremely practical and cost efficient for hospitals and day surgery environments. This exclusive distribution builds upon the agreement Smith+Nephew announced for Japan in April 2023.

Lynette Walter, NAVBIT’s CEO said, “We are absolutely delighted to expand our partnership with Smith+Nephew into the Australian market. We are committed to supporting and serving our great Australian surgeons with smart, useful technologies - and we look forward to complementing the Smith+Nephew implant range with this very neat navigation technology.”  

“We are seeing the positive impact that NAVBIT SPRINT™ offers our customers in Japan and look to experience the same results in the Australian market” noted Kenneth Garcia, Senior Vice President and General Manager, International for Smith+Nephew. “Many customers are seeking innovative solutions for THA planning and execution and NAVBIT will help us serve that specific market segment.”

Post-operative dislocation remains the second most common reason for revision of a total hip replacement in registries around the world¹^-⁵ as data suggests only 49% of acetabular cups are accurately aligned when using manual instrumentation.⁶ Simran Sabharwal, Vice President Global Hip Marketing for Smith+Nephew explained that, “NAVBIT SPRINT offers an innovative enabling technology solution that has been proven to address inaccuracies in cup placement, thereby reducing the risk of dislocation while providing efficiencies in the episode of care.”

“In the past, surgery was more art than science. Today we have higher expectations around the accuracy and precision of our surgery,” said Professor Bill Walter, Orthopaedic Surgeon and Founder of NAVBIT. “Outliers are becoming less acceptable to surgeons and to patients. Surgeons will have to answer the question: If there is a technology available that can make you more accurate, why are you not using it?"

NAVBIT SPRINT™ is available through Smith+Nephew in Japan and Australia and has two product variants: for supine patient position and for lateral patient position; making is suitable for a range of surgical approaches, including the direct anterior approach and the posterior approach.

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1. Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR). Hip, Knee & Shoulder Arthroplasty: 2020 Annual Report, Adelaide; AOA, 2020: 1-474. [Available at: https://aoanjrr.sahmri.com/annual-reports-2020]
2. National Joint Registry for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 17th Annual Report. [Available at: http://www.njrcentre.org.uk/njrcentre]
3. American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), The Seventh Annual Report of the AJRR on Hip and Knee Arthroplasty 2020, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
4. Italian Arthroplasty Register, Addendum to the Annual Report 2019, English Version of Tables and Figures, October 2020
5. Agarwal S, Eckhard L, Walter WL, et al. The Use of Computer Navigation in Total Hip Arthroplasty Is Associated with a Reduced Rate of Revision for Dislocation: A Study of 6,912 Navigated THA Procedures from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2021.
6. The John Charnley Award: Risk Factors for Cup Malpositioning: Quality Improvement Through a Joint Registry at a Tertiary Hospital.  Malchau et al Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2011 Feb; 469(2): 319–329.