Repetitive trauma to joints can deteriorate joint articular cartilage. Cartilage Restoration practice leader Ian A. Stine, M.D . has worked extensively with Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) techniques used to restore and repair the cartilage of an osteoarthritic joint. Adults and children with extensive degenerative arthritis or knee injury, which might otherwise have required total knee arthroplasty, can benefit from this ACI procedure.

Consultation for this innovative technology is available at your request.

Here is more detail about ACI: Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) is a procedure, which can result in dramatic improvement in knee conditions that would previously have required a total knee arthroplasty. ACI is used to treat damage to the part of the knee formed by the end of the thigh bone, the knee cap or more recently the lower bone, the tibia. In this process, healthy cartilage cells are harvested from the patient’s damaged knee at the time of initial arthroscopy. They are sent to the Genzyme Tissue Repair Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Approximately four to five weeks later they are returned and are implanted into the damaged cartilage area. At the time the new cartilage cells are implanted, the surgeon removes damaged and unhealthy cartilage tissue and prepares the area for the introduction of the cultured cells. A small piece of periosteum (a soft tissue covering the bone) is taken from just below the patient’s knee joint and stitched over the damaged area to hold the new cartilage cells in place. The cultured cells are then implanted under this tissue where they continue to multiply and integrate with surrounding cartilage to restore the cartilage surface.

Clinical research results have shown that the treatment produces a durable hyaline cartilage similar to the cartilage found in an undamaged knee in a majority of patients. Many patients are able to resume normal activity within a year after treatment. In addition, many people are also able to regain function to the level they can resume recreational or organized sports. Since the replacement cartilage is derived from the patient’s own cells, there is no danger of rejection by the immune system.

To find out more about Dr. Ian Stine and our other Orthopedic Surgeons, please visit our Meet the Doctors section on this website. For maps and addresses for our three (3) convenient office locations, and for the phone numbers to call to make an appointment, go to Locations. Or simply call our Pleasanton office at , and our friendly staff there can help to direct your call.