'Can I Dance?' Asks Recipient of New Knee-Replacement Surgery

From Putnam Hospital Center

“Can I dance?” Carmen Gracia asked mere hours after receiving a partial knee replacement at Putnam Hospital Center.

Gracia was able to get out of her hospital bed shortly after the minimally invasive procedure, the first of its kind at Putnam Hospital Center.

“I feel fine,” she said as she walked with assistance down the hospital corridor.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joel Buchalter, of Somers Orthopedics, performed the MAKOplasty® Knee Resurfacing procedure on Jan. 30 using the RIO® system, a highly advanced, surgeon-controlled robotic arm that offers a new level of precision to restore mobility. The technology is also used for total hip replacements.

MAKOplasty® is changing the face of orthopedic surgery with smaller incisions and quicker recovery times.

“It was amazing, very precise,” Buchalter said of using the robot. “It’s simple to use and fun.”

Buchalter cautioned that not everyone is a good candidate for MAKOplasty®. Gracia, he said, had arthritis in part of her knee and her pain was centralized to that location.

Gracia was joined by her husband, Ed Gracia, who, as it turned out, had an anterior hip replacement at Putnam Hospital Center the day before her surgery. His procedure, which calls for an incision to the front of the leg rather than the back, was also performed by Buchalter.

Ed Gracia was able to walk an hour after his operation and joined his wife as she took her first steps. The Patterson couple went home together on Feb. 3.

“It’s a major operation, but it works,” he said.

Buchalter has performed more than 300 anterior hip replacements, he said. The recovery time is much faster because the frontal approach does not require cutting into the muscle, Buchalter explained.

An anterior hip replacement uses a specialized table called a HANA that allows for precise placement of the hip components. Most patients go home after a day or two and can drive in two weeks and walk without a cane, Buchalter said. Some return to work in two to three weeks compared to two to three months with traditional hip surgery, he added.

“It’s a game changer,” Buchalter said. “And all this at a community hospital.”

Putnam Hospital Center is part of Health Quest, a nonprofit healthcare system that includes Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie and Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, among other affiliates. MAKOplasty® procedures are also performed at Vassar Brothers. Putnam and Vassar Brothers are the only hospitals to have this technology from Yonkers to the Canadian border.

PHOTO: Ed Gracia walks with his wife, Carmen Gracia, following her partial knee replacement. Carmen Gracia was assisted by Physical Therapy Clinical Coordinator Susan Stradling. Photo submitted by Marcela Rojas/Putnam Hospital Center.