In order to assess safety, orthopedic surgeon Martha Murray, MD, and her team performed standard ACL reconstructions on 10 patients and the new experimental repair on 10 others. The experimental technique is called bridge-enhanced ACL repair and involves placing a blood-soaked sponge between the severed ends of the ligament. The sponge is meant to assist in the ligament’s growth and fusion over the first six to eight weeks after the operation. This new procedure does not require a graft. This instance marks the first time the procedure was used on humans.
None of the 20 patients’ ligaments failed to reconnect, and no patient got an infection or had stiff knees, according to the Times.
The hope is that this procedure will lead to superior ligament performance in the future when compared ACLs repaired with grafts. Repairing the native ACL without a graft would also enable physicians to avoid harvesting a tendon from the hamstring.
Experts have expressed cautious intrigue. “This is definitely an advance,” Jo Hannafin, MD, PhD, a senior attending orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York who was not involved in the experiment, told the Times. Dr. Hannafin added, “I don’t think we will know for three to five years whether this technique is really effective or not.”
In the near future, Dr. Murray plans to begin enrollment for a randomized trial further comparing the two procedures to help determine the efficacy of the experimental technique.
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