This was such a great way to finish off the week – Fresh Osteochondral Allograft all the way from the US! I’ve been doing fresh frozen grafts for a while now, but have always wanted to get access to fresh osteochondral grafts. So many moving parts, with a timeline from harvest to implantation, approvals from hospitals and a patient who’s willing to be available at short notice with what are generally big operations with long recovery times.
Luckily enough, all these fell into place last week and we were able to have a seamless process (aside from a slight surgery delay due to a FedEx issue in Singapore)!
James, now living in Tasmania, had a lateral meniscus injury a few years back with resulting resection/debridement. I’d met him a few years before that when I operated on his other knee (lateral meniscus repair ironically!) while he was still living in Perth and playing WAFL with the South Fremantle Football Club.
James contacted us again to enquire about his right knee. Still in his early 20’s, working on his feet and desiring to remain fit and active, we decided to throw the kitchen sink at him with Distal Femoral Osteotomy, Lateral Meniscus Transplant, and Fresh Osteochondral Allograft.
The MOPS preservation and storage is associated with high chondrocyte viability. Surgically, it looked and felt like healthy tissue! The graft had been harvested from the patient only 25 days prior and had travelled all the way from the US to us here in Perth for implantation. It was a team effort, so many thanks to everyone who helped pull this off.