https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/...nee-repairs/BJISuh60AYKYTKWPwaYFWP/story.html
Dr. Martha Murray stared at an MRI of Corey Peak’s left anterior cruciate ligament and choked back tears. With a mix of relief and astonishment, she said, “Oh, my goodness, it looks great.”
Peak was the first person to undergo the Bridge-Enhanced ACL Repair (BEAR) surgery developed by Murray, an orthopedic surgeon, at Boston Children’s Hospital. Three months after the surgery, Peak’s MRI showed that his ACL had started to naturally knit together.
It was the first indication that the pioneering procedure, which uses a sponge bridge to connect the two torn ends of the ligament, could be a viable less-invasive option for ACL repairs.
On Wednesday, 10 months after that first promising MRI, Murray publicly announced the results from the Phase 1 safety study of the BEAR surgery. All 10 BEAR patients, including Peak, have new, healthy ACLs regrowing where there were originally tears. If Murray and her team at Boston Children’s see positive outcomes in Phase 2, then the procedure could be available for widespread use in three to four years and revolutionize how orthopedic surgeons treat ACL injuries.
In the future, Murray hopes the BEAR procedure will require less recovery time than the 6 to 9 months currently needed for ACL reconstructions with tendon grafts. Also, results from animal testing lead her to believe the BEAR will dramatically reduce the risk of arthritis in surgically-repaired knees. Both would be invaluable developments for athletes at all levels.
“The safety study showed us that this is possible,” said Murray. “The ACL can regenerate and come back. We can let our body do what it does so well.
“We can give it a little piece of machinery like the sponge bridge, rather than taking stuff out and putting something else in like a tendon graft and forcing it to do something that’s not quite as natural. I’m hoping that the BEAR will shift how people look at ACL surgery.”
“It has the potential to be a game-changer, but it’s still early in the process,” said Dr. Jo Hannafin, a sports medicine surgeon at New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery. “These patients will have to be followed for a minimum of two years to determine whether the ACL heals and does that healed ACL stay competent or stretch over time and fail.”
Upon viewing an MRI of Peak’s knee one year after surgery, Murray said, “It looks like a normal knee.” Peak recalled the MRI technician saying it “looks like we put in the healthy knee.”
But, like Hannafin, Murray wonders how the surgically repaired knee will look in a year and, more significantly, in 15 years......
Dr. Martha Murray stared at an MRI of Corey Peak’s left anterior cruciate ligament and choked back tears. With a mix of relief and astonishment, she said, “Oh, my goodness, it looks great.”
Peak was the first person to undergo the Bridge-Enhanced ACL Repair (BEAR) surgery developed by Murray, an orthopedic surgeon, at Boston Children’s Hospital. Three months after the surgery, Peak’s MRI showed that his ACL had started to naturally knit together.
It was the first indication that the pioneering procedure, which uses a sponge bridge to connect the two torn ends of the ligament, could be a viable less-invasive option for ACL repairs.
On Wednesday, 10 months after that first promising MRI, Murray publicly announced the results from the Phase 1 safety study of the BEAR surgery. All 10 BEAR patients, including Peak, have new, healthy ACLs regrowing where there were originally tears. If Murray and her team at Boston Children’s see positive outcomes in Phase 2, then the procedure could be available for widespread use in three to four years and revolutionize how orthopedic surgeons treat ACL injuries.
In the future, Murray hopes the BEAR procedure will require less recovery time than the 6 to 9 months currently needed for ACL reconstructions with tendon grafts. Also, results from animal testing lead her to believe the BEAR will dramatically reduce the risk of arthritis in surgically-repaired knees. Both would be invaluable developments for athletes at all levels.
“The safety study showed us that this is possible,” said Murray. “The ACL can regenerate and come back. We can let our body do what it does so well.
“We can give it a little piece of machinery like the sponge bridge, rather than taking stuff out and putting something else in like a tendon graft and forcing it to do something that’s not quite as natural. I’m hoping that the BEAR will shift how people look at ACL surgery.”
“It has the potential to be a game-changer, but it’s still early in the process,” said Dr. Jo Hannafin, a sports medicine surgeon at New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery. “These patients will have to be followed for a minimum of two years to determine whether the ACL heals and does that healed ACL stay competent or stretch over time and fail.”
Upon viewing an MRI of Peak’s knee one year after surgery, Murray said, “It looks like a normal knee.” Peak recalled the MRI technician saying it “looks like we put in the healthy knee.”
But, like Hannafin, Murray wonders how the surgically repaired knee will look in a year and, more significantly, in 15 years......
