KOCHI: Patients, especially sportspersons, in the state worried over troubled knees caused by damaged cartilage can heave a sigh o..
KOCHI: Patients, especially sportspersons, in the state worried over troubled knees caused by damaged cartilage can heave a sigh of relief.
A regeneration technique involving a biopsy of the healthy cartilage tissue which is processed and reimplanted has shown tremendous results, said Lakeshore Orthopaedic Centre director Dr Jacob Varghese on Tuesday.Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) is a regeneration technique that involves taking a biopsy of the healthy cartilage tissue from the knee through an arthroscopy and then processing it where Chondrocytes are isolated from the tissue, expanded and proliferated in a culture medium. Growing enough cells takes approximately four weeks following which it is reimplanted into the defective site.
"Sports medicine had previously focused on invasive treatment that brought back limited but not complete functionality to an injured athlete," said Dr Jacob Varghese who is also the chief of division of Joint Replacement and Sports Injury of the hospital.He said the technique, already available in other parts of the country, has been made affordable compared to knee replacement surgery which could cost anywhere between Rs 8 and Rs 12 Lakhs. With cartilage regeneration playing an important role, the hospital has associated itself with the Cell Processing Centre Regrow of the Lonavalabased cell therapy company RMS for the culture of cartilage tissue.
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