James Bicos, MD, of Michigan Orthopaedic Surgeons in Bingham Farms, is a sports medicine and shoulder surgeon who has focused his career on procedures such as shoulder reconstructions, cartilage restoration, stem cell injections and meniscal transplants.
Dr. Bicos is also director of the Royal Oak, Mich.-based William Beaumont Sports Medicine Fellowship and an assistant professor at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine in Rochester, Mich. Here, he discusses important technology advancements heading into 2019.
Q: What technology are you most excited about in the future?
Dr. James Bicos: The technology I am most excited about in the future will be our ability to treat arthritis with biologic restoration of the cartilage. We are pretty good now at treating an isolated 'pothole' defect of cartilage, but we still don't know how to restore larger defects of the knee or when the knee completely degenerates. The only thing we have is a total knee replacement. Although that is a good option for now, it is a mechanical piece that wears down. Ideally, we want a biologic replacement.
I believe in the future that we will be doing some sort of knee clean out procedure to get rid of any large cartilage fragments. We will follow this with a concoction of the patient's own stem cells and an IV dose of stem cells or a medicine that will direct those cells on what to do. The surgeons at MOS, including myself, are closer than most people think to studying this pathway and finding a solution.
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