First Plastic Meniscus Implanted

Surgeons at Ohio State Medical Center (OSU) at Columbus have performed the first plastic meniscus implantation in the United States. Christopher Kaeding, M.D., executive director of OSU Sports Medicine, performed the surgery which was part of an FDA approved clinical trial.

As Norber Sparrow, a writer for the trade journal Plastics Today, explained, the meniscus will not (if damaged) heal on its own. Instead of getting better, the meniscus grows progressively more painful and the condition may lead to arthritis.

The implant used in the ground-breaking surgery is called the NUsurface Meniscus Implant, made by Active Implants LLC of Memphis, Tennessee. The company formed in 2004 to develop and commercialize a plastic meniscal implant from medical grade polycarbonate urethane. The product has the CE mark, making it available in Europe and Israel and has been granted an FDA Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) in the United States.

According to Sparrow, seven clinical sites in the United States are enrolling patients in the study, which is called the VENUS-trial (Verification of the Effectiveness of the NUsurface System). Sparrow quotes Kaeding as saying, “If this meniscal implant works as well as we think it will, it fills a gap in our treatment for those with meniscus injuries.”

Approximately 720, 000 patients undergo knee replacement surgery each year, a number that is expected to climb to 3.5 million cases by 2030, according to Active Implants. That is an increase of nearly 400%.

Officials of Active Implants believe the NUsurface device could treat hundreds of thousands of patients per year whose previous partial meniscectomy surgery was not successful and who are not yet ready for knee arthroplasty.