Seth L. Sherman, MD, enrolled and operated on four patients in a study of CartiHeal's Agili-C knee cartilage repair implant.
Three things to know:
1. Dr. Sherman is a board-certified orthopedic sports medicine surgeon at Columbia-based Missouri Orthopaedic Institute. He is one of 15 primary investigators in the U.S. conducting the FDA investigational device exemption study of the Agili-C implant.
2. The Agili-C implant is a cell-free implant made of inorganic sea coral exoskeleton. It is designed to be used for a variety of cartilage defects.
3. Patients are randomly assigned to either one of the traditional surgical options — microfracture or debridement — or to receive the new implant.
"Often in studies like this one, we can enroll only a very strict sub-set of young, active patients with a single, isolated cartilage defect," said Dr. Sherman. "In reality, that's not the typical patient we see every day. This implant is different because it's medically indicated for a wide range of situations including patients with multiple cartilage defects and even those with mild-moderate osteoarthritis."