Microsurgical transplant for knee joint

Press, 14 October 1985, Page 38

Microsurgical transplant for knee joint

NZPA Sydney A team of Australian surgeons has developed a new technique in microsurgery on the knee, the Australian Information Service reports. The technique opens the way to the reconstitution of other joints in the body destroyed by disease or injury. The surgeons, Mr Greg Keene and Dr Darryl Teague, who practise at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia, said they elected microsurgery because it minimised mutilation of the area and because the hospital staff had expertise in microsurgery techniques. In the operation, cartilage from the knee of a person killed in a road accident was transplanted into the knee of a footballer.

Several similar operations have been attempted in West Germany recently,

but in each case the entire area of the knee was opened up. Mr Keene said what made the operation in Adelaide so special were the special instruments designed by hospital staff for the operation, the extraordinary precision with which the surgery could be done by using an arthroscope, and the fact that the patient could leave hospital four days later with scarcely a visible sign of surgery.

The footballer’s new cartilage has shown no sign of being rejected and he must now rest the knee for six months. After a similar operation at the end of that time to inspect the site, he will be given a series of exercises.

The surgeons will then know if the operation has been/£ total success.