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Feline First

A tough cancer survivor named Cyrano has undergone a pioneering joint replacement surgery at NC State, making him the first feline to receive an osseointegrated full knee implant.

The 10-year-old tabby cat was resting comfortably in the ICU following surgery Thursday, and he’s expected to go home in a few days. Cyrano was treated for bone cancer last year and is now in total remission. But the disease and radiation therapy weakened the bone in his affected back leg and knee, leaving him with limited mobility and chronic pain.

If all goes well, his new high-tech knee will change all that. His surgeon says he should be back on his feet in a week and back to normal cat activities within three months.

“This implant is as good as the implants used in human knee replacements,” says Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little, an orthopedic surgeon and professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine. “It works as well as a real joint.”

Cyrano’s implant is about the size of a tube of lip balm, but considerably more complex. Marcellin-Little worked with industrial and systems engineer Dr. Ola Harrysson and a multidisciplinary team of university and industry experts worldwide over six months to design, fabricate and finish the implant, made of cobalt chromium.

Cyrano’s owner, Sandy Lerner, brought the cat to NC State, hoping to avoid amputation. Marcellin-Little and Harrysson are pioneers in osseointegration, a process that fuses a prosthetic limb with an animal’s (or human’s) bones.

Cyrano’s case is unique, but Marcellin-Little hopes that this surgery will pave the way toward making feline knee replacements more commonly available.