Fox Valley Orthopedics is announcing that a novel cartilage restoration technique is being pioneered by sports medicine surgeon, Vishal Mehta, M.D. Dr. Mehta is the first doctor to be approved to perform ProChondrix Augmentation in the U.S.
Vishal Mehta, M.D. Pioneering ProChondrix Augmentation in the U.S.
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“It is true that in 70-80% of related cases, micro-fracture surgery reduces pain and improves function, ” stated Dr. Mehta in the September 11, 2015 news release. “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.”
“ProChondrix helps deliver the necessary components for cartilage restoration, ” Dr. Mehta explained. “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 told OTW, “There is great promise in this cell-based, cartilage matrix that it may actually re-create cartilage where we previously only recreated fibrous tissue with a micro-fracture procedure. Animal data looks great (horse) and clinical implants to date are doing very well.”
“One year from now we will have longer clinical results with MRI data as well. We are currently planning a randomized clinical trial versus micro-fracture alone so we should be getting good clinical data over the next few years. Right now it is extremely promising but we need to get data from randomized trials.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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