Clinical Trials

As part of the mission of the Rush Cartilage Restoration Center, orthopaedic surgeons at Rush are committed to providing patients with the full range of contemporary treatment options, including the latest minimally invasive procedures. Below is a brief description of a variety of ongoing research studies. If you would like more information about them, you can feel free to call the office or inquire about them at your next visit. All research studies have been approved by the Institutional Review Board at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. Involvement in any fashion is purely elective and patients will undergo a thorough informed consent process. Patient information is strictly confidential and will only be used for research purposes.

Cole Research Summary 2008
Summary of Ongoing Research Efforts
The Cartilage Restoration Center Core Laboratory and Clinical Research Program

Knee

Cartilage Restoration

Prospective Studies: For patients scheduled to have one of the following procedures, we encourage you to participate in regularly scheduled follow-up visits (6-month, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year). Your progress will be carefully monitored through self-assessment and physical examination. Many of these procedures are relatively new, and prospective studies may contribute to the management of these and other related conditions.

• Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI)
• Osteochondral autograft transplantation
• Osteochondral allograft transplantation
• Meniscus transplantation

Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering using chondrocytes: During anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, a "notch" or opening is created between the medial and lateral femoral condyle to prevent impingement of the newly constructed ACL. In order to create the notch, nonessential tissue (cartilage and bone fragments) is removed and normally discarded. In this particular study, we are inviting patients to donate these orthopaedic tissues so that researchers may be able to grow chondrocytes (cartilage cells) from the small samples that are donated. With these tissue culturing techniques, it is hoped that cartilage defects can be replaced with chondrocytes that are grown from the patient.

Testing of Articular Cartilage (diagnostic, debridement and lavage, meniscectomy, plica excision, etc.)

Normal cartilage: We are involved in a multicenter study attempting to map "normal" cartilage stiffness. It is hoped that the normal cartilage stiffness map will provide orthopaedic surgeons a standard by which patient cartilage stiffness can be measured.

Mild degenerative changes: Recent studies have demonstrated that thermal chondroplasty with radiofrequency energy (RFE) can smooth the surface of mildly degenerative cartilage, and it is also thought that RFE may be able to stiffen articular cartilage. By smoothing and stiffening the cartilage surface, thermal chondroplasty may be able to slow the progression of osteoarthritis. In this study, we will compare cartilage stiffness before and after treatment with RFE.

Shoulder

Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair

Prospective Study: For patients scheduled to have arthroscopic rotator cuff repairs, we encourage you to participate in regularly scheduled follow-up visits (6-month, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year). Your progress will be carefully monitored through self-assessment and physical examination. This procedure is relatively new, and the prospective studies may contribute to the management of this and related conditions.

Normal Shoulder Function: A survey is performed that includes subjective and objective data to quantify shoulder function. We believe that there are a few variables that may influence the outcome of the score, namely age, sex, and hand dominance. We are currently collecting data from patients with normal shoulders to create a database sufficient to describe normal shoulder function to better understand disease processes.