Clinical benefits of Zimmer's cartilage lesion graft documented

Zimmer Holdings, Inc. announced that results from a peer-reviewed publication demonstrated positive outcomes from the first surgery performed using the DeNovo NT Graft for the repair of cartilage lesions. The report includes both 2-year patient outcome measures and 21-month follow-up MRI data, according to a company press release.

Published in The Journal of Knee Surgery, the case report described clinical success with Zimmer’s DeNovo NT Graft after 2 years of implantation when used to treat a symptomatic cartilage lesion in the patella. The case study reports that the implantation of the graft resulted in substantial clinical improvement in both pain and function through 2 years as demonstrated by improvements in the IKDC Subjective and all domains of the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcomes Scores. MRI data demonstrated that the treated defect was filled with repair tissue which resulted in a near complete resolution of pre-operative subchondral bone edema, the company said.

“This first peer-reviewed publication represents a significant milestone for DeNovo NT Graft,” said Cheryl R. Blanchard, Ph.D., Zimmer senior vice president and chief scientific officer. "The promising results included in this case report demonstrate how DeNovo NT Graft technology can be used to repair cartilage defects, offering patients and clinicians a new generation of biological cartilage treatment options."

Zimmer said the patient was a 36-year-old man who received the graft in May 2007. He reported that his preoperative pain improved after 7 weeks and by 7 months his range of motion extended up to 140°. The report’s authors stated that potential benefits of this new technique can include: single-stage procedure; a simple surgical technique; implantation of juvenile cartilage tissue; no donor site morbidity; and no need for use of a periosteal flap, when compared to a more traditional autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) procedure.