University Network

Adam Vasser of Los Altos, California, was an active kid with a bent for baseball until one unfortunate day when his young heart was attacked by a mysterious virus. It leads to an urgent need for a heart transplant and steroid-based therapy in the long run to prevent transplant rejection, forcing him to lead his life with osteonecrosis, an excruciating knee disorder.

After undergoing 15 heart and knee surgeries and at the age of 23, Adam is back to what he liked the most, baseball, all thanks to a new technique known as cellular grafting.

From News-Medical.Net:

The new surgical technique involves transplanting cellular material from the pelvic area into the knee. Two years after surgery, Goodman said, all three patients had returned to nearly normal activity and knee function with no complications.

“It’s a fairly simple procedure,” said Goodman, the Robert L. and Mary Ellenburg Professor in Surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Osteonecrosis of the knee is a rare disorder. When it occurs in young people, it’s most often the result of steroid therapy and is called secondary osteonecrosis. The bones in the knee start to die from a loss of blood supply, leading to severe pain, progressive arthritis and eventually the need for artificial joint replacement.

“Many patients do OK without surgical treatment,” Goodman said. “With those patients, I wait and prescribe pain medication.” But for young patients who still have a lifetime of activity ahead of them, Goodman wanted alternatives.

The 60-minute surgery, known as osteoprogenitor cellular grafting, was all about scooping out the dead bone and filing the space with a cellular matter. Theorized by Goodman, the technique proved better than traditional bone grafting, which is often considered as the first-line therapy for these types of cases.

Category: Anabolic Steroids | Tags: cellular grafting, knee disorder, osteonecrosis, steroid therapy, steroid treatment, transplant