Zimmer Knee's Feminine Twist

Leading the Cause

Zimmer led the push for MIS joint replacements as well.

But Zimmer's breakthrough surgery technique -- the two-incision hip replacement -- proved too challenging for widespread adoption and, therefore, fell short of the company's revolutionary aims. Today, only 6% to 7% of surgeons who use Zimmer implants rely on the complicated procedure.

To be fair, most Zimmer surgeons have wound up adopting other company-sponsored MIS procedures instead. But critics still question the soundness of MIS joint replacements, due to possible complications, and even Zimmer's focus on that particular niche.

After all, they note, Zimmer has basically spent a whole lot of money training surgeons to use the same old devices in a different way.

"All of these things -- MIS, computer-assisted surgery, gender-specific knees, etc. -- are costly extensions for Zimmer and the others," says a former sales manager who has marketed orthopedic devices for several major players in the past. But "none of these products are actually changing market share. It's just a big 'keep up with the Joneses' game that is costing these companies more money and slowing down the process of replacing joints."

Still, Zimmer clearly feels otherwise.

"We devote huge energy to innovative game-breakers -- whether it's MIS or Gender Solutions or high-flexion -- and we focus a lot of dollars there," Elliott admitted last month. "We're having a lot of fun with (Gender Solutions), and there actually is some great science to it. ... It will make for some unique debate in case anybody was getting bored listening to orthopedics."