Development of an arthroscopic cartilage repair system

The Leeds cartilage repair system provides a disease-modifying, minimally-invasive cartilage resurfacing therapy for patients whose articular disease is too severe for palliative treatment alone but who are too young to receive joint replacement implants. It consists of a biomaterial implant that features (i) a flexible and hence joint-contour-following scaffold; (ii) a non-woven defect filling structure with a fibre spacing that was demonstrated to enhance cell in-growth and matrix deposition; and (iii) a patented and easy-to-use ‘annular groove’ fixation method that is efficient and requires minimal removal of subchondral bone to apply. Surgical insertion of the implant uses simple instrumentation in conjunction with bisphosphonate treatment, which minimises damage to the surrounding cartilage and reduces formation of cysts that undermine subchondral bone strength.
Previous in vivo trials (with Leeds University and two large orthopaedic companies), optimised implant architecture, instrumentation, bisphosphonate-treatment, test models and analytical methods. Xiros is currently undertaking a further animal study with the optimised polyester implant.