According to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), approximately 790,000 total knee replacements are performed each year—and with an aging population, that number keeps on growing. But while the surgery is fairly common and considered safe and reliable as a treatment for arthritis, it is a serious undertaking requiring up to a year to recover, Cleveland Clinic says. Pain is one of the main reasons people opt for surgery, but what if there is another way to address that discomfort without immediately scheduling an intensive procedure? Well, good news: There is, in fact, a new alternative to delay a knee replacement.
RELATED: Take Statins? New Study Says You Might Not Need To.
According to a piece published by University of California (UC) Davis Health, the new procedure helps preserve knee cartilage, AKA the connective tissue in your body that can't heal on its own. According to UC Davis Health, it can tear just through regular use or injury.
The CartiHeal Agili-C Cartilage Repair Implant is made from aragonite, which UC Davis Health describes as "a form of calcium carbonate derived from coral exoskeletons." It has small holes that allow it to infiltrate human tissue.
Earlier this year, Cassandra Lee, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at UC Davis Health, was one of the first in the U.S. to perform the surgery and implant the coral product into the knee of Alicia McHatton, a neonatal intensive care unit nurse at UC Davis Health.
According to UC Davis Health, McHatton led an active lifestyle, developing pain in her knee following an injury in July 2021. An MRI showed that she had "a sliver of cartilage torn from her left femur had wedged itself under her kneecap," as well as a "larger defect" that was discovered during a second procedure.
RELATED: 7 Best Exercises to Improve Your Balance, According to Fitness Experts.
Initial treatments (cartilage grafts), unfortunately, didn't take or relieve her pain. At 39, a full knee replacement also seemed like a large undertaking, which led Lee to suggest a new alternative.
"Dr. Lee sent me all the research on CartiHeal, and I knew it was definitely something I wanted to try for the failed graft," McHatton said.
McHatton's procedure was successful, and the coral will be fully absorbed by her bone over time, leaving a "gooey" substance of stem cells similar to natural cartilage, The Washington Postreported.
Just six weeks after the operation, McHatton was in physical therapy—and even better, she could put weight on her leg within a week and felt no more pain.
"Incredibly, she told me about a week post-op that the pain she had when initiating a step was just gone," Lee said in the UC Davis Health story.
However, experts note that the CartiHeal implants can't treat "extensive injuries or severe arthritis." What it can do is move more complex surgery further down the line.
"Because cartilage itself is such a specialized tissue, CartiHeal can’t exactly replace it," Lee told UC Davis Health. "For patients who have cartilage injuries, multiple procedures may be needed, but if we can help push an eventual knee replacement further down the road with CartiHeal Agili-C, that’s going to be way better for their quality of life."
