Fox Valley Orthopedics announced that a revolutionary surgical technique, ProChondrix Augmentation, is being successfully pioneered by their own sports medicine surgeon, Dr. Vishal Mehta. The first and leading doctor to be approved for this surgery in the US, Dr. Mehta has reported impressively consistent results that could mean an ease of patient suffering and less full-knee replacement surgeries in the future.
In many orthopedic patients, damage to knee cartilage can cause bone-on-bone friction that results in severe pain and often leads to conditions requiring a full knee replacement. Various measures are taken by medical care teams to try to slow or stop the compounding issues. Orthopedic surgeons routinely perform a knee micro-fracture surgery: tiny holes are drilled into the affected knee area and as the bone tries to heal itself, it produces new, fibrous tissue helping to relieve pressure and ease suffering. While somewhat successful, this solution does not actually produce new cartilage, which Dr. Mehta’s team may have solved with ProChondrix Augmentation.
“It is true that in 70-80 percent of related cases, micro-fracture surgery reduces pain and improves function,” states Dr. Mehta. “However, we now have the ability to better see how these surgeries fare over time and their lasting impact on all surrounding areas. We discovered without the regeneration of new cartilage, many patients who had a successful micro-fracture surgery required a partial or full knee replacement in as few as five years’ time. ProChondrix Augmentation works by enhancing the success of a micro-fracture surgery and allowing the affected area to more naturally heal and rebuild strength.”
Dr. Vishal Mehta has been exploring ways to augment the effectiveness of tissue rebuilding efforts and started using ProChondrix, created by Allosource, as a cellular 3D fresh cartilage matrix. “ProChondrix helps deliver the necessary components for cartilage restoration,” Dr. Mehta explains. “It is a next generation of cartilage therapy, delivering a multicellular matrix on which to build. For our orthopedic applications, ProChondrix was providing live functional cells and other biological components necessary for repair and regeneration of damaged cartilage tissues, and our most recent clinical tests are returning encouraging success stories.”
Dr. Mehta’s team states that preliminary test results are clearly supporting the idea that many patients suffering from damaged knee cartilage could find longer periods of relief when choosing ProChondrix Augmentation to augment micro-fracture surgery. The ability to actually form real cartilage in the damaged area, instead of just fibrous tissue, is an enormous breakthrough. Dr. Mehta believes this leap forward will positively impact orthopedic patients who are anywhere from 10 to 45 years of age, and anticipates more surgeons will begin practicing the procedure as the results become well known. Dr. Vishal Mehta was the first surgeon in the world to perform this procedure.
