News
5 Options for Knee Cartilage Replacement and Repair
Advances in orthopedic medicine provide many options for treating knee injuries. Some long-standing approaches include surgery to repair torn cartilage or knee joint replacement. In addition to these, there are now minimally invasive treatments using cartilage taken from elsewhere in the body or regenerated from a person’s own cells.
Stem Cells Used to Treat Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head
Collapsed femoral heads caused by osteonecrosis—otherwise known as avascular necrosis— unfortunately represent the root cause for approximately 10% of all hip replacements nationwide. Daniel Wiznia, MD, is utilizing a stem cell treatment at Yale School of Medicine and integrating new techniques along with 3D imaging technology as part of a joint-preservation procedure.
8 Pearls for Surgical Repair of a Torn Meniscus
Why repair a torn meniscus? Because it’s an important structure for load dispersion, shock absorption, and load transmission through the knee. When non-operative management fails to relieve symptoms, surgery is performed to help reduce pain and improve function. Below are Dr. Godin’s 8 pearls for meniscus repair.
Bone marrow-derived fibrin clot is better source for meniscal repair
With age, the meniscus receives less and less blood—with the inner most area becoming avascular. Tears in this area do not heal normally, often requiring surgery. Surgeons can draw fibrin, a protein involved in blood clotting, from peripheral blood (PB) or bone marrow aspirate (BMA), and implant a fibrin blood clot into the injured area to help with healing.
Only higher-dose tramadol outperforms placebo for improved pain, function in knee, hip OA
A daily 300 mg dose of tramadol — but not 100 or 200 mg doses — surpassed placebo in improving pain and function related to hip or knee osteoarthritis, but was linked to increasing adverse events, researchers noted in Arthritis Care & Research.