Single Stage Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (STACi) is a one-step surgical cartilage repair procedure.
What is cartilage repair?
Cartilage repair encompasses a number of techniques designed to repair an area of damaged joint cartilage. This may include:
- pressing plugs of healthy cartilage into pre-drilled holes in the damaged surface
- disturbing the underlying bone to enable migration of stem cells into the area
- covering an area of damaged cartilage with a membrane and filling the space behind the membrane with a cell-rich medium that will grow in place.
Technique of STACi
In the STACi procedure, cartilage cells are harvested from the patient, then released from their matrix and mixed with bone marrow cells (MSCs) and laid onto a membrane which is glued to cover the patient's cartilage defect.
Synonyms:
STACi
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