Study finds cartilage implant promising
Poland – At September’s International Cartilage Repair Society Annual Meeting (ICRS), in Warsaw, participants heard that a neocartilage implant called NeoCart, made by US firm Histogenics, is safe as well as promising.
NeoCart is an autogenous neocartilage implant grown by seeding a patient’s own cartilage cells on a collagen matrix. A patented, high-pressure tissue engineering processor is said to produce more natural neocartilage than other techniques.
Dennis Crawford MD PhD, Assistant Professor of orthopaedics and surgical director for Sports Medicine & Cartilage Reconstruction at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), was reporting on an FDA Phase I safety trial that involved seven patients treated with NeoCart at OHSU, with a 2-year follow-up. All patients showed good cartilage fill and integration with surrounding cartilage. Knee joint function was improved in six of the seven patients. Advanced MRI techniques showed that the NeoCart treatment had resulted in the formation of true hyaline cartilage in four of the seven patients, Dr Crawford pointed out. ‘This novel therapy may replace microfracture to become the next primary treatment for cartilage injury to the knee. Patients are getting pain relief for at least two years, the technology can be applied via a simple out-patient procedure and it appears by our best radiographic methods to mature and stabilise over time,’ he added.
This article was published on 11/14/2007