INSTANT AUTOLOGOUS CHONDROCYTE REPAIR (Orthopedics This Week)
Instant Autologous Chondrocyte Repair!
The orthopedics department at UMC Utrecht in the Netherlands has just figured out how to do autologous chondrocyte knee repair in a ONE procedure. Up until now, using the patient’s own chondrocytes to repair knee cartilage required two operations—one to harvest the chondrocytes and after culturing, another procedure to implant them (aka: Carticel).
The team, led by Professor Daniël Saris, bypassed most of the Carticel approach by surgically removing cartilage cells from damaged knees and then mixing them with specially selected donor stem cells. This cell mixture was then applied to the damaged area in the knee during the same operation. The advantage for patients is that only one procedure is required instead of the usual two operations. The new surgical technique will be less burdensome on patients, reduced treatment time. And it costs 75% less than the current two operation standard.
This new procedure is called ‘Instant MSC Product Accompanying Autologous Chondron Transplantation’ (IMPACT). Professor Saris told OTW,
“IMPACT is a new treatment that we are using in a first-in-man ...
