Radiostereometry and new prostheses

The Second International RSA Meeting was held in Leiden, the Netherlands, in April 2011. The meeting was attended by 110 participants from 12 countries, including the USA, Canada, and not least Sweden—the country in which the clinical use of RSA was initiated by Göran Selvik. The large worldwide attendance of the meeting clearly indicates that the use of RSA is spreading across the world. It has not only attracted the attention of surgeons, researchers, and the orthopedics industry but also that of the regulatory bodies in Europe, the United States, and Australia. There is growing awareness that new joint replacement prostheses, cements, and surgical techniques should be thoroughly evaluated before general release onto the market. Thus, the rather erratic introduction of new prostheses or new procedures should be replaced by a phased introduction, an approach that has been mandatory in the pharmaceutical industry for decades (Nelissen et al. 2011).