Beaumont Researching New Way to Fix Cartilage 'Potholes'

ROYAL OAK -- Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak was recently chosen as one of up to 40 clinical sites in North America, and the only one in Michigan, for the Cartilage Autograft Implantation System, or CAIS, clinical research study.

The purpose of the investigational study is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the CAIS surgical procedure as a treatment for cartilage damage in the knee as compared to standard microfracture surgery where tiny fractures in underlying bone are made, causing small amounts of new cartilage to develop.

"What's different is that this experimental technique is being done with only one surgery that requires a smaller incision, whereas past techniques have required a two surgery approach. Because it's done with the one surgery, it's different than anything we have tried with cartilage transplant surgery thus far," said orthopedic surgeon Joseph Guettler, Beaumont's principal investigator. "The cartilage cells are harvested through an autograft procedure from an area of the patient's own knee where it is not needed, then minced, and placed back into the knee on an absorbable scaffold that fills the area of injury."

Guettler illustrates the theory of the research: "Think of your cartilage as pavement on a road. If you injure the cartilage, it's like knocking off a piece of pavement, and it creates a pothole.  If you don't fill the pothole, the pavement around it deteriorates, and pretty soon the whole road is bad."

For this study, approximately 300 participants will be assigned by chance to either receive CAIS or the standard microfracture repair surgery for their cartilage damage.

According to Dr. Guettler, ideal candidates for this trial are men and women between the ages of 18-55 with knee pain, swelling and tenderness, joint grinding and limited knee motion. The pain must be caused by knee cartilage damage through injury to the tissue rather than as a result of arthritis. Additional inclusion and exclusion criteria must be met by potential patients and can be discussed with the research team. More information is available by visiting www.kneepainstudy.com on the Internet or by calling Beaumont Orthopaedic research department at (248) 551-6679.