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who receive implants and those who get injections, physical therapy and a knee brace should be enlightening, says Dr. Kaeding, and if the implant ultimately receives the FDA's pre-market approval, it'll open avenues for further exploration. "Hopefully, this is a solution," he says. Stem cell transplants In another corner of sports medicine, physicians are exploring not just how to forestall the decay of knee cartilage, but also whether this damage could possibly be reversed. The main ingredient in this repair would come from within the patient's own body, with an assist from science. The growing excitement surrounding stem cell therapy comes from its versatility, says Christopher C. Dodson, MD, an attending orthopedic sur- geon at the Rothman Institute in Philadelphia, Pa., and an associate pro- fessor at Thomas Jefferson University. Derived from the bone marrow from a patient's hip or adipose tissue from their abdomen or buttocks, "stem cells can become anything in the right environment. They can grow cartilage, and they can heal lesions, with the same strength" as the original tissue, he says. "They can do tendon-to-bone or bone-to-bone." Implanting stem cells into a compromised knee could halt the progres- sion of damage and regenerate lost cartilage. It might even accelerate healing. "Where we think this will be especially beneficial is among young athletes," says Dr. Dodson. "ACL healing is always a challenge. While we're waiting for the healing, what if there's a way we could speed things up?" Given the strong outcomes he and his colleagues have seen from autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) in sports injury cases, they're eager to put stem cells to the test. In ACI, small strips of carti- lage are arthroscopically removed from the joint. In a laboratory envi- ronment, the chondrocytes — or cartilage cells — are isolated and cul- 5 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6