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Post-Surgery

After the Procedure

While each hospital or treatment facility has its own protocols, this is what you might expect:

Immediately after your procedure, you will be brought to the recovery room.
As the anesthesia wears off, you may feel tired and slightly disoriented; the after effects can vary greatly from person to person.
Typically for 4 to 6 hours your knee will be in a brace that locks it straight out.
After 6 hours you may begin to use a continuous passive motion (CPM) machine. This passive motion helps to prevent stiffness in your knee joint while nourishing your articular cartilage and preventing adhesions from forming.
Before you leave the treatment facility, a physical therapist will teach you how to safely transfer from sitting to standing, putting minimal weight on your healing knee.

Discharge Criteria

A member of your medical team will see you to determine the timing of your discharge. Their decision may be based on:

Adequate pain management on oral medications
Normal temperature (no fever)
Ability to get in and out of bed without help
Ability to walk with crutches

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Indication

Carticel® (autologous cultured chondrocytes) is an autologous cellular product indicated for the repair of symptomatic cartilage defects of the femoral condyle (medial, lateral or trochlea), caused by acute or repetitive trauma, in patients who have had an inadequate response to a prior arthroscopic or other surgical repair procedure (e.g., debridement, microfracture, drilling/abrasion arthroplasty, or osteochondral allograft/autograft).

CARTICEL should only be used in conjunction with debridement, placement of a periosteal flap and rehabilitation. The independent contributions of the autologous cultured chondrocytes and other components of the therapy to outcome are unknown.

CARTICEL is not indicated for the treatment of cartilage damage associated with generalized osteoarthritis.

CARTICEL is not recommended for patients with total meniscectomy unless surgically reconstructed prior to or concurrent with CARTICEL implantation.

Important Safety Information

CARTICEL should not be used in patients with a known history of hypersensitivity to gentamicin, other aminoglycosides or materials of bovine origin.

It should not be used in patients who have previously had cancer in the bones, cartilage, fat or muscle of the treated limb.

Pre-existing conditions, including meniscal tears, joint instability, or malalignment should be assessed and treated prior to or concurrent with CARTICEL implantation.

CARTICEL is not routinely tested for transmissible infectious diseases and may transmit disease to the healthcare provider handling CARTICEL.

Use of CARTICEL in children, patients over age 65, or in joints other than the knee has not yet been assessed.

The occurrence of subsequent surgical procedures (SSPs), primarily arthroscopy, following CARTICEL implantation is common. In the Study of the Treatment of Articular Repair (STAR), forty-nine percent (49%) of patients underwent an SSP on the treated knee, irrespective of their relationship to CARTICEL, during the 4-year follow up. The most common serious adverse events (≥5% of patients), derived from STAR, include arthrofibrosis/joint adhesions, graft overgrowth, chondromalacia or chondrosis, cartilage injury, graft complication, meniscal lesion, graft delamination, and osteoarthritis.

For more information on CARTICEL, please see the Package Insert (PDF).

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Need Help with Knee Vocabulary?

Our interactive knee glossary can help you.

Have Questions?

Check out our FAQs for answers—or contact a Carticel Care^® Coordinator at 800-453-6948, Option #2, for more detailed information.

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