Sports Medicine: Game-Changing Technologies

Article preview reprinted from Medtech Insight - August/September 2009

Medtech Insight -- Sports medicine is the fastest growing specialty in orthopedics, attracting more than 25% of orthopedic residents seeking fellowships for the 2010 training year. Since many sports injuries occur in the young athlete, the way an injury is treated early on may be the determining factor in preventing progressive joint changes and the early onset of degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis. The promise of new biomaterials and biologics for repairing or replacing supporting soft tissue structures will have a big impact on the orthopedics market for some time to come. Read more...

Sports Medicine: Game-Changing Technologies

Article preview reprinted from Medtech Insight - August/September 2009

With the growing trend toward less invasive surgery and preventive approaches to stave off the joint degenerative process, it should come as no surprise that sports medicine is the fastest growing specialty in orthopedics. Attracting approximately 27% of orthopedic residents seeking fellowships for the 2010 training year, sports medicine is on the frontline in terms of treating musculoskeletal injuries resulting from athletic activity. With many of these injuries occurring predominately in the young athlete, there is heightened concern about how an injury is treated early on, since this may be the determining factor in whether it leads to progressive joint changes and the early onset of degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis.

While the knee accounts for the majority of acute sports trauma, owing to activities such as soccer, basketball, and volleyball, which involve deceleration, coupled with cutting, pivoting, or sidestepping, it is a rupture to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) that often sidelines an athlete. And, the risk of ACL injury in young athletes appears to be particularly acute for females. It is estimated that one in every 100 female high school athletes who play competitive sports will injure their ACL before graduating and the risk increases to one in 10 in college-level athletes.

Even if the ACL is repaired and sports activities are resumed, 20% of females who continue to play sports for three years will re-injure the same knee or tear the ACL in the opposite knee. Often concurrent with an ACL injury are tears to the meniscus (50%), collateral ligaments (30%), and damage to the articular cartilage (30%). The troubling news is that 90% of those who have achieved excellent knee stability following ACL surgery will experience degenerative arthritis in the injured knee within 10 years (often when these females are in their 30s) in spite of a successful reconstruction.

With the promise of new biomaterials and biologics for repairing or replacing supporting soft tissue structures such as ligaments, tendons, meniscus, and cartilage, this is likely where the action will be in orthopedics for some time to come. Just how deeply these advances are likely to impact orthopedics in the future was highlighted at three recent meetings: the Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) and International Cartilage Repair Society, both held in May, and the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) meeting, held this summer in Keystone, CO.

- Sharon O'Reilly

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Companies mentioned in this article:

AlloSource

Biomet Inc.

Cayenne Medical Inc.

Clearant Inc.

ConforMIS Inc.

Conmed Corp.

Covidien Ltd.

Scandius BioMedical Inc.

Food & Drug Administration

Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corp.

Integra LifeSciences

Johnson & Johnson

DePuy Mitek Inc.

Kensey Nash Corp.

Kinetic Concepts Inc.

LifeCell Corp.

Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation

Organogenesis Inc.

OrthoMimetics Ltd.

RTI Biologics Inc.

ReGen Biologics Inc.

Serica Technologies Inc.

Smith & Nephew PLC

Smith & Nephew Inc.

Soft Tissue Regeneration Inc.

Stryker Corp.

Stryker Orthopedics

Surgicraft Ltd.

Synovis Life Technologies Inc.

Synthes Inc.

Wright Medical Group Inc.

Wright Medical Technology Inc.

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Medtech Insight newsletter provides insights into the technology and market developments (devices, instrumentation, biomaterials, gene therapy, tissue engineering, etc.) impacting a wide range of surgical and non-surgical clinical practices (cardiothoracic & vascular surgery, general surgery, orthopedics & spine surgery, interventional radiology/cardiology, etc.). Learn more at www.medtechinsight.com.