New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery researchers launched a clinical trial to assess the effects of Organogenesis' ReNu on knee function.
Here are five things to know:
1. HSS orthopedic sports medicine surgeon Andreas Gomoll, MD, will lead the study. Dr. Gomoll's research team will inject ReNu into the knees of eight patients between the ages of 18 and 55 with chondral and osteochondral defects.
2. Patients in the pilot study will receive intra-articular ReNu injections two and four weeks after arthroscopic surgery to stimulate defect healing.
"There are not that many stem cells in the bone marrow, which can compromise the quality of the repair tissue," said Dr. Gomoll. "While microfracture surgery has satisfactory results in the short term, they tend to worsen over time, especially in larger defects."
3. Researchers will follow the patients for the next two years, assessing joint pain and function.
4. Dr. Gomoll and HSS orthopedic sports medicine surgeon Sabrina Strickland, MD, recently completed a randomized controlled trial of ReNu for knee arthritis treatment. At six months, significantly more patients who received ReNu injections experienced improved outcomes compared to patients who received sham injections or conventional viscosupplementation injections.
5. ReNu is composed of human amniotic membrane and amniotic fluid cells. Organogenesis is studying ReNu for a variety of orthopedic applications.
Here is more information on the trial.