Healing-Response (or Microfracture) for ACL Repair
If anyone has any more information (good/bad), please share your experiences here. Seems like a great alternative to reconstruct an acl, w/o slicing up your own hamstrings, tendons, or dealing with the infection/rejection issues of a cadaver.
http://www.steadman-hawkins.com/athleteUpdate.cfm
BODE MILLER: "HEALING RESPONSE"
AND THE COMEBACK KID
Editor’s Note: The following profile is based on an interview by Dick Needham. Mr. Needham is a senior contributing editor of Ski Magazine.
Call it coincidence, but it seems every time world-class athletes in need of a body repair visit Steadman-Hawkins – Bruce Smith, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Phil Mahre, Steve Mahre, John Elway, Picabo Street, Greg Norman – they return to the playing field in better shape than when they were competing at even their highest level.
Witness Bode Miller. In 2000-2001, the soon-to-be ski racing phenom had already had one World Cup podium finish (giant slalom) and was primed for a big result at the combined downhill/slalom event in St. Anton, Austria. He was fourth in the slalom going into the downhill, but 30 seconds into the downhill course Bode hooked an edge at 80 miles an hour, careened off the course, and crashed into a fence. Result: a complete ACL tear of the left knee coupled with damage to the meniscus. Diagnosis: total ACL reconstruction, with an extended rehab period that such a surgery would require.
But something happened along the way. Dr. Steadman opted to use a revolutionary new procedure that he had developed. During Bode’s meniscus repair, he performed the “healing response.” This arthroscopic procedure involves making three to 10 small “microfracture” holes in the bone at the femoral origin of the injured ACL. The blood clot from the bleeding bone captures the injured end of the ACL and eventually reattaches the ligament back to the bone. The “healing response” has many advantages, including a much shorter recovery period and less cost, and because it is less invasive, the chances for osteoarthritis to set in later are greatly reduced.
Three weeks following his surgery, Bode was fully mobile and without need of a brace. Encouraged, Dr. Steadman suggested waiting another three weeks to determine whether the “healing response” would take. When the three weeks were up, the news was even more encouraging. “My ACL,” says Bode, “was re-growing entirely on its own.” By July, Bode was back on skis once again, training at Mt. Hood, Ore., and “feeling 100 percent, going right after it right away.” In the season’s first World Cub giant slalom in Solden, Austria, Bode finished a remarkable fifth – eight months after his surgery.
Bode’s new knee – and his determination to “go right after it” paid off big last season, with four World Cup victories, a second in the World Cup slalom standings, a fourth in the overall World Cup standings and two silver medals at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
For most, those kinds of results would rank high in the memory bank. For the 25-year-old from Franconia, N.H., however, his most memorable moment was the day he made the U.S. Ski Team. Competing in the U.S. National Championships at Sugarloaf, Me., Bode came from 30th position in the slalom to capture third. “My family was there, all my classmates were there,” says Bode. “It was the greatest!”
When Bode isn’t on the course, he’s on the court. An all-state tennis player, he has been a coach and counselor at the family’s Tamarack Tennis Camp for years and, as this is written, is “just trying to relax and get the energy systems back up.”
“Tennis,” says Bode, “is a great mental exercise. It’s a longer event than ski racing and it helps you stay focused for a longer period of time.” But wait, there’s more. Golf, for example. A low- to mid-70’s shooter, Bode took up the game at 15 but didn’t “get serious” about golf until five years ago. “I really enjoy the game,” he says. “When I retire from ski racing, I’d like to play tournament golf—if I still have the competitive energy.”
Competitive energy isn’t something that Bode is likely to run out of anytime soon. The 2006 Winter Olympics are still ahead (“It’s a long way away, but I plan to be there”) and he’s already looking to compete in tournament tennis if he can bring in some major events locally (“It’s important for the kids to see their coaches compete”).
Besides, he always has the comfort of knowing that the staff at Steadman-Hawkins will be there to make sure the physical part is up to the energy part. “Dr. Steadman and his staff,” says Bode, “are the greatest—supportive and super friendly. It makes a nice environment to be in when you’re injured, bummed out and trying to keep your spirits up.”
The Steadman-Hawkins Sports Medicine Foundation is key to the medical breakthroughs that have brought athletes, like Bode Miller, back to their best. It provides the research environment in which important new procedures, like the “healing response”, are developed, nurtured, tracked and refined to promote top-of-the-game performance—for world-class competitors