Medicine's Next Big Thing: Healing ACL Tears

Ivanhoe Broadcast News
Friday, April 27, 2007; 4:15 AM

BOSTON (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Tony Riggs is a dad on the go. But just a few years ago, a torn knee ligament caused constant pain. Surgery was a success, but it kept him out of the game. He says, "It was anywhere between four and six months before I began to feel back to normal."

ACL surgery takes a long time to recover from -- too long, especially when patients want to quickly get back to their normal activities. One day, people like Riggs could avoid surgery thanks to a breakthrough procedure to repair damaged knees. No knife! Just a needle!

"The hope is that really we'll have a procedure that's less invasive for patients, much easier on them and they'll go on toward having a better knee for the rest of their life. That's really our goal," Orthopedic Surgeon Martha Murray, M.D., of Children's Hospital Boston, tells Ivanhoe.

Using the technique, doctors inject a collagen gel enriched with blood platelets into the tear. The gel gives cells something to crawl back into and heal the torn ligament.

Dr. Murray says, "I think that if we can get that ACL to heal, that would really be a way of restoring a much more normal biomechanics of the knee itself."

The collagen gel will not be ready for human studies for at least several years. They need to study the healing ligaments for a longer period before they can know the long-term results. So far, it works in 75 percent of animals. In the coming years, researchers want to soon move their studies into people.

And when they do, patients like Riggs could get back on their feet a lot faster.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Children's Hospital, Boston
(617) 355-3501
http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site587/mainpageS587P0.html
http://www.childrenshospital.org/murray