LOS ANGELES. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Clinical trials for a new way to repair cartilage damage in the knee are in phase three, and showing promising results. The current standard treatment, micro fracture, involves making small holes in the bone, which will create a hybrid cartilage that may break down over time. Doctors are using a patient’s own cartilage to make the fix.
Bjorn Borrell isn’t quite ready to play basketball yet, but a few months after the NeoCart procedure, he’s feeling strong.
Borrell told Ivanhoe, “I have no pain. From what I’m doing right now in PT, everything is fine. The knee’s not swollen. I have great mobility in it. I can walk. I can do hiking.” Borrell had a small area of damage, or a pothole, in the articular cartilage of his knee, that’s the shiny tissue between the femur and shin bone that allows smooth joint movement. Borrell’s was causing pain and swelling.
It sent him to Robert Grumet, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Hoag Orthopedic Institute in Los Angeles, California, who’s running a trial on the NeoCart autologous tissue implant.
“We are harvesting their cartilage and growing it in a lab and then reimplanting that cartilage in a patient where they're missing a piece of cartilage,” detailed Dr. Grumet.
After the cartilage cells grow in the lab for six weeks, doctors trim the new tissue implant to fit in the hole and secure it with a bio adhesive.
“If we can recreate the normal anatomy that the function will improve, the patient’s long-term outcome could improve, we could delay the onset of arthritis in that knee long term,” said Dr. Grumet.
Borrell still has some work to do to get his knee to fully function, but he and Dr. Grumet agree he’s well on the way.
The NeoCart clinical trial will include 245 patients and is 75 percent full. Candidates must be between 18 and 59 years old and have pain in one knee. If you want to see if you qualify, call 855-552-5633.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Supervising Producer; Wendy Chioji, Field Producer; Milvionne Chery, Assistant Producer; Roque Correa, Editor; Rusty Reed, Videographer.