Symptomatic Cartilage Defects of the Femoral Condyle Clinical Trial
Official title:
Phase II Study to Investigate the Efficacy and Safety of BioCart™II in the Treatment of Symptomatic Cartilage Defects of the Femoral Condyle in Comparison With Microfracture
BioCart™II is a novel scaffold seeded with autologous chondrocytes to be used to repair cartilage lesions of the knee. This study is designed to compare the efficacy and safety of BioCart™II treatment compared to microfracture which is the classical method of treatment.
Full thickness cartilage lesions are typically incapable of self repair, are a source of pain and morbidity and lead to early onset osteoarthritis. A classical method of treatment has been microfracture where holes are drilled in the subchondral bone to allow influx of bone marrow cells which fill and repair the lesion. The resulting repair has been reported to be mixed fibrocartilage which is recognized to be less efficient and durable than hyaline cartilage, the physiological material making up the joint. In autologous chondrocyte implantation, a sample of cartilage is removed from a non-weight bearing region of the joint and the cells are grown and expanded in culture and then returned to the knee to repair the damaged cartilage. For implantation with BioCart™II, the chondrocytes are grown in the presence of proprietary growth factors which maintain the chondrocytes in optimal condition for subsequent repair. For implantation, the cells are seeded on a completely human three dimensional spongelike scaffold which holds the cells in the correct topology to allow for a rapid repair of the damaged joint with true physiological cartilage. BioCart™II is user friendly for the surgeon and patient alike giving it an advantage over other methods for autologous chondrocyte implantation that are in clinical use. ;
Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Treatment