Comprehensive Cartilage Program

Premier Pulse     June 2023 Jun 26, 2023

By Kelli Ashbeck, director of surgical services and orthopedics, Premier Health

Premier Health is excited to provide patients with knee pain a comprehensive offering of surgical and non-surgical treatment solutions geared toward reducing pain and restoring mobility. The Cartilage Restoration Center at Miami Valley Hospital South can treat all knee cartilage injuries to help prevent further damage that may lead to osteoarthritis and the need for joint replacement surgery.

When treated early, many cartilage problems can be resolved without surgery. Non-surgical options can be customized based on patient need and include:

  • Anti-Inflammatory Medications: Designed to reduce swelling and painful rubbing in the knee joint
  • Physical Therapy: Customized exercises and therapy to restore joint function and strength
  • Joint Injections: Many substances can be injected into a damaged joint to relieve pain and improve movement, which included:
    • Steroid Injections: Often called cortisone shots, used to decrease joint inflammation, pain, and swelling.
    • Hyaluronic Acid (HA): A gel injection of a natural substance to reduce swelling and thicken fluid in the joint to help the knee move more easily.
    • Biologic Agents: Uses the patients’ “healing” cells to help restore the damaged cartilage. These include platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections taken from the patients’ blood and stem cells.
  • Weight Loss Solutions: Losing excessive weight can relieve additional stress on knees and other joints.

If cartilage damage is more severe, surgical interventions are available, including:

  • Arthroscopic Debridement: During this minimally invasive procedure, the surgeon smooths rough edges of cartilage and may remove loose fragments.
  • Microfracture: Tiny holes are drilled into the bone at the base of the cartilage damage. Bone marrow cells bleed through to form a clot that turns into new cartilage, making movement easier.
  • Matrix Induced Autologous Cultured Chondrocyte Cell Implantation (MACI): The first stage of this procedure involves a small tissue sample taken from healthy knee cartilage. A lab grows these cells over a few weeks. A patch of these cells is placed over the damaged cartilage in a second procedure.
  • Osteochondral Allograft (OCA): A graft of bone and cartilage is taken from a tissue donor and implanted into the damaged area.
  • Joint replacement

The Premier Health Cartilage Restoration Center team specializes in knee care. It consists of physical therapists, nonoperative sports medicine physicians, and cartilage specialty surgeons with training in cartilage care to preserve, resurface, or reconstruct the knee joint.

To submit a referral, an order can be placed in Epic using Consult to Premier Ortho – Regenerative Knee Clinic. Patients can also call the Premier Orthopedics Centerville office for more information or to schedule an appointment at (937) 312-1661(937) 312-1661.

Back to the June 2023 issue of Premier Pulse

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