Collagen Meniscus Implant

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Greetings. I am emailing to inquire about the current status of collagen meniscus implants and if there are any physicians in the Maryland/ Washington DC area who have surgical experience with this procedure.

I know a friend who is female, age 50, has had 2 prior knee surgeries to repair/ remove portions of the meniscus. She appears to be in good health, is athletic, continues to play tennis, yet appears to be "playing through the pain." Is there any positive news I can share with her? Thank you.

-- Denise Pintello (dpintello@mindspring.com), December 24, 2002

Answers

There has been some effort in the past few years of developing a collagen meniscal implant or using donor meniscus for a meniscal transplant. As far as I know, the work on the collagen implants is preliminary. Transplants can perform well. However, they are somewhat difficult to perform and are of limited use because they can only be used in knees with very little arthritis. Also, patients sometimes experience inflammatory reactions to the transplanted meniscus. However, in the right knee they can be effective and are a useful technique. If the knee has more arthrtis than will permit the use of a meniscal implant or transplant, a variety of other procedures are available to help with your discomfort and disability. These include Uni-Spacer, partial knee replacement and high tibial osteotomy. More information on these procedures are available on the "Aboutjoints.com" web site.

-- Marc W. Hungerford, M.D. (mhunger@jhmi.edu), January 29, 2003.

I head it will be out by 2005

-- (eovf@yahoo.com), October 12, 2003.

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