Newswise — Hackensack Meridian Health Hackensack University Medical Center is among the first hospitals in New Jersey to offer a cutting-edge treatment to regrow and implant a patient’s own cartilage cells to regenerate knee cartilage. Surgeons at Hackensack University Medical Center are now using MACI (autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane) implants to treat patients with cartilage defects.
“Hackensack University Medical Center’s renowned sports medicine and orthopedics department has been leading the way in knee cartilage repair for two decades, and we look forward to using the MACI implant to positively impact our patient’s lives,” said Michael Kelly, M.D., chair, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine and chair, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Hackensack University Medical Center. “Our team members will use this latest, less invasive technology to regrow a patient’s own cartilage cells in a laboratory and implant them to regenerate knee cartilage.”
This state-of-the-art technology reproduces a patient’s own cells using autologous cultured chondrocytes that are seeded onto a resorbable collagen membrane. MACI requires smaller incisions and less scar tissue cleanup, which ultimately results in faster recovery and rehabilitation time for patients. Ideal candidates for MACI implants are younger, active adults with full thickness symptomatic articular cartilage defects of the knee.
“Hackensack University Medical Center’s Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery department has consistently been on the forefront of innovative technology. We are proud to be among the first hospitals in New Jersey to offer this new advanced, cutting edge treatment to regrow and regenerate cartilage in the injured knee,” said James W. Cahill, M.D., senior orthopedic surgery attending, Hackensack University Medical Center, who is performing the MACI surgeries. “Utilizing advanced biologic technology such as MACI, we can now heal larger cartilage defects with the patient’s own cells. I am confident MACI will result in a better more natural, longer lasting repair that better restores cartilage compared to prior techniques. Recovery and quality of life will significantly improve.”
MACI was approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2016 and is the latest generation of ACI, which Dr. Cahill and Hackensack University Medical Center has been successfully performing for nearly two decades. In 1999, Hackensack University Medical Center was among the first hospitals in New Jersey to perform ACI procedures.
Hackensack University Medical Center has a renowned sports medicine and orthopedics department. Dr. Cahill performed one of the first ACI surgeries in 1999 at Hackensack University Medical Center and has two decades of expertise in knee cartilage repair. He is a fellowship trained sports medicine and reconstruction specialist, and routinely performs arthroscopic and joint replacement surgery of the shoulders, elbow, hip and knee. He has lectured on and participated in original research for the treatment of cartilage injuries that ultimately require cartilage repair and reconstruction.
ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care.
Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 16 hospitals from Bergen to Ocean counties, which includes three academic medical centers – Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, JFK Medical Center in Edison; two children’s hospitals - Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital in Hackensack, K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital in Neptune; nine community hospitals - Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin, Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, and Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood; and two rehabilitation hospitals - JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison and Shore Rehabilitation Institute in Brick.
Additionally, the network has more than 450 patient care locations throughout the state which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers and physician practice locations. Hackensack Meridian Health has 33,000 team members, and 6,500 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.
The network’s notable distinctions include having one of only five major academic medical centers in the nation to receive Healthgrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award for five or more consecutive years, four hospitals among the top 10 in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, recipient of the John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality from The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum, a six-time recipient of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” one of the “20 Best Workplaces in Health Care” in the nation, and the number one “Best Place to Work for Women.” The network was also named to Becker’s Healthcare’s “150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare/2018” list.
Hackensack Meridian Health partnered with Seton Hall University to launch the first private medical school in New Jersey – Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University - in more than 50 years to address a growing shortage of physicians and dramatic changes in health care delivery. Additionally, the network partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer to find more cures for cancer faster while ensuring that patients have access to the highest quality, most individualized cancer care when and where they need it. Hackensack Meridian Health and Carrier Clinic, New Jersey’s oldest and most respected behavioral health provider, signed a definitive agreement to merge.
Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.
For additional information, please visit www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org.
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