The procedure, which is currently being trialed at Southampton General Hospital, involves coating damaged cartilage with stem cells, taken from a patient’s own hip, and surgical glue.
Known as ABICUS – Autologous Bone Marrow Implantation of Cells University Hospital Southampton – the technique, if successful, will regenerate the remaining tissue and create a permanent, ‘like-for-like’ replacement for the first time.
Patients who undergo the ABICUS operation have the cartilage cut and tidied and undergo microfracture, but their cartilage tissue is then coated with a substance made up of bone marrow cells, platelet gel and hyaluronic acid.
During the 30-minute procedure, the bone marrow sample is spun in a centrifuge in the operating theatre to give a concentrated amount of the patient’s own stem cells.
These cells are then mixed with the gel and acid to create a ‘glue’ substance which is placed over the cartilage defect and allowed to set.
Southampton General Hospital consultant orthopaedic surgeon and the study’s principal investigator Gorav Datta said: "The development of this technique and the study we are conducting could revolutionize the treatment of common cartilage injury by creating a like-for-like, identical cartilage replacement for the first time."
The study at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust will compare the results of 40 patients aged between 18 and 65 years, half who will undergo ABICUS and half microfracture alone.
