Keith Anderson, D.P.M.’08, says he’s always been a “tinkerer” who seeks better ways of doing things. “That can be a good thing or a bad thing,” jokes the Hayward, WI, podiatric physician. It was a good thing for his patients, however, when he invented the 1-Cut Blade, a new instrument for performing wedge osteotomies.
Manufactured by Vilex Inc., the blade allows surgeons to make a wedge cut in bone – a procedure typically used to correct hallux limitus, bunions and other structural bone deformities – with one pass rather than two. Anderson developed the 1-Cut in his garage using five different flat saw blades and a tin snip. He tested it on sawbones and then on cadavers and began using it on patients last year.
“With the 1-Cut, you can be confident you’re going to get an exact cut in the bone every time,” he says. “It takes the error out of the procedure, so it’s good for patient outcomes.”
Information about the 1-Cut Blade is available on the Vilex website.
