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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowZimmer Inc. is racking up sales of a knee replacement designed for women despite lingering concern in the medical community that the implant is mostly a sales gimmick.
More than 24,000 of the implants have been sold since the launch of Gender Solutions in 2006, according to The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne. The women’s implants helped push overall Zimmer knee sales up 11 percent, to $454 million, in the first quarter of this year from the same period a year earlier.
Much of the rising demand is driven by women who have been targeted by Zimmer advertising, the newspaper reported.
The Warsaw company says the device is designed to better fit women’s anatomy.
Still, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons has not taken a position on whether the implants are necessary because it cannot find enough supporting evidence in studies.
Physicians are split, with some viewing Zimmer’s push as a marketing ploy to peddle a more-expensive product, others using the implant aggressively and the balance falling in the middle.
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