Carticel (autologous cultured chondrocytes) has demonstrated important benefits in patients with a cartilage injury on the end of the thigh bone, the femoral condyle. Carticel provides you with an option to restore the damaged surface by regenerating cartilage and may allow you to return to normal daily activities. If you orthopaedic surgeon has determined that you have an articular cartilage injury on the femoral condyle, then Carticel may be an appropriate option.

Step 1
Biopsy. Your surgeon takes a tiny piece of healthy cartilage during an arthroscopic procedure.

Step 2
Biopsy Processing and Cell Culturing. The biopsy is sent to Genzyme Tissue Repair in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for processing and culturing. Processing releases the Chondrocytes which are then cultured or grown for about 5 weeks. The chondrocytes multiply significantly during culturing to about 12 million cells. These cells, Carticel, are returned to your surgeon for implantation.

Step 3
An incision is made to expose the injury and damaged cartilage is removed.

Step 4
Periosteum, a tissue that covers the bone, is harvested from the shin bone and sutured over the injury site to create a water tight compartment.

Step 5
After ensuring that the injury site is water tight, Carticel is implanted. Here the cells may continue to multiply forming the building blocks of healthy cartilage and integrate with surrounding cartilage. With time, the cells will mature and fill in the injury site with a firm durable tissue.