Meniscal tears are excellent candidates for repair via arthroscopic surgical procedures. Football players are often back on the field within a few weeks following an injury, but there’s still room for improvement in the way the procedures are performed. Specifically, because of the limitations of current technology, meniscectomies are often performed because of the difficulty of sewing tears in very tight spaces.
Enter the Novostitch from Ceterix Orthopaedics, a Menlo Park, CA firm, that is unveiling its NovoStitch arthroscopic device capable of passing a compression suture from the lower to the upper part of its jaw. This allows the surgeon to slide the lower jaw under the target tissue and run a suturing needle to the upper jaw without having to jam instruments in tight spaces that would otherwise make repair nearly impossible.
Here’s an animation demonstrating the workings of the NovoStitch:
Open access article in Arthroscopy Techniques reviewing the NovoStitch: The Circumferential Compression Stitch for Meniscus Repair
Product page: NovoStitch Suture Passer…
Press release: CETERIX ANNOUNCES U.S. LAUNCH OF NOVEL DEVICE FOR MINIMALLY INVASIVE ORTHOPAEDIC PROCEDURES