New devices rids patients of knee pain

NEW HANOVER COUNTY -- Bobby Reynolds has been a mailman for 40 years, but last year he almost had to quit. Reynolds said, "I had some knee problems, the cartilage had already been worn down and it wasn't there any more so it was like my bones together... You couldn't function anymore or even walk." Reynolds walks an average of 15 miles a day and carries at least 35 pounds in his satchel. He said, "It hurts to walk or even go up and down stairs or walk or stand on it." Reynolds says he’s tried everything to get rid of his knee pain, then he found out Cape Fear Hospital had a brand new device: the Ortho-glide. Orthopedic Surgeon David Esposito said, "The Ortho-Glide is a minimally invasive surgery, no bone cuts are required. We don't fillet the knee open that big, we do it through an inch and half or two inch incision." Reynolds said, "If this surgery hadn't come up I'd a been forced to retire on a disability." Sitting would not sit well for a man like Reynolds. "I like to ride horses, I like country western dancing; I'm an Oklahoma boy originally, that’s just part of my life,” Reynolds said. After the surgery, Reynolds can live how he used to. The Ortho-Glide implant is only available in eight hospitals across the country. Post-surgery Reynolds is back delivering mail, living how he used to.