Jul 23, 2008 8:55 pm US/Eastern
Device Used In Dogs Prevents Arthritis In Humans
BOSTON (CBS) ―
It's a knee injury that affects more than a million people every year. It's called a meniscus tear or tear in the knee cartilage, and it happened to David Ortiz, Tiger Woods, and to Framingham, Mass.' John Studley.
Studley tore his meniscus playing hockey.
"It was painful and going through the process of rehabbing, every time I buckled, the knee hurt quite a bit," he said.
How important is the small rubbery piece of material called a meniscus?
Very!
"Its function is to take care of the joint surfaces so they don't deteriorate and get arthritis in the future", says Dr. John Richmond, Chairman of Orthopedics and New England Baptist Hospital in Boston.
Unfortunately, 90 percent of meniscus tears cannot be repaired because there's no blood flowing to that part of the body. Instead, the torn piece has to be removed surgically and then? Experts say the knee joint is doomed to developing arthritis.
But that all may change because of man's best friend. That's because the structure of the knee of a dog and human is very similar. Using canine patients, Dr. James Cook, a Professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri, has been trying to find a way for the meniscus to heal itself.
Dr. Cook invented a device called a BioDuct. He implanted it in dogs with a torn meniscus with remarkable results.
"This device will let the cells come in, the blood supply come in, heal the tear, and then go away. It's bio-absorbable," Cook explained.
In other words, the meniscus can now be repaired, not removed. "We save the meniscus in its entirety. We save the function of the knee," he said.
Starting in the fall, Dr. Richmond will be using the FDA-approved BioDuct in human patients.
"It will improve healing on what we currently repair, and may actually as we go forward allow us to repair tears that we couldn't repair," Richmond said.
John Studley wishes the procedure had been available to him. "Anything that can prevent you from getting arthritis down the road is fantastic."
If a meniscus tear does get a good blood supply, it can heal itself completely in less than 12 weeks.
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