The Science of Flexible Healing

Injury and Early Healing:

 

Healing ruptured soft tissues will undergo a significant period of weakness.  With the return of activity, these weakened tissues often become stretched or fail entirely.  Therefore, it is common for surgeons to reinforce the reconstruction with one of three types of material:

 

Autograft: Tissue taken from another part of your own body

Allograft, Xenograft: Tissue acquired from deceased donors or other animal species

Synthetic: Scientifically engineered materials that substitute for the body’s own tissues

 

The Impact of Reinforcement Choice:

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Our daily activities require STRONG and ELASTIC soft tissues that most reinforcements cannot provide. After reconstruction, reinforcement graft materials are rapidly broken down, and lose 50-90% of their strength within the first six weeks.(1,2)  These are also much stiffer than native connective tissue which leads to altered motion at the healing site. These compromises in natural motion of a joint can have profound negative effects on long-term motion, joint surfaces, and tissue healing.
 

Alternatively, Artelon’s innovations in Dynamic Matrix technology protect the repair AND natural motion throughout the healing process.