An internally cooled saw blade for bone cuts: Lower temperatures in 30 knee arthroplasties

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Abstract
A saline-cooled saw, which has been shown to give good control of the heat generation during bone cutting under laboratory conditions, was tested in in vivo. With a saline flow of 80 mL/min, the maximum cutting temperature in 30 knee prosthetic operations was 32 (25–37) °C in the saw blade and respectively 30 (26–35) °C and 29 (26–34) °C 2 and 3 mm underneath the cut surface. Because the temperature generated by conventional osteotomy equipment may exceed 70 °C, the use of our cooled double saw blade during joint replacement prevents heat osteonecrosis.