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

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) degrees C in the saw blade and respectively 30 (26-35) degrees C and 29 (26-34) degrees C 2 and 3 mm underneath the cut surface. Because the temperature generated by conventional osteotomy equipment may exceed 70 degrees C, the use of our cooled double saw blade during joint replacement prevents heat osteonecrosis.