Patent ID: 7575602

Claim:
An artificial joint comprising: an artificial condyle; a tibial tray; a spacer having an upper surface directly contacting the artificial condyle and a lower surface directly contacting the tibial tray, the lower surface contacting the tibial tray along a single continuous contact surface; a plurality of sensors, each sensor being encapsulated within a milled recess formed in the lower surface of the spacer, the recess being closed with a plug made of the same material as the spacer, the plurality of sensors responding to forces applied to the upper surface of the spacer by generating data representative of the forces applied to the upper surface of the spacer; and a transceiver encapsulated within another milled recess formed in the lower surface of the spacer, the other milled recess being closed with a plug made of the same material as the spacer, the transceiver sending the data to a processor through a wireless communication link, wherein the processor has a memory arranged to store the data sent from the transceiver.