1. VERSUS EXISTING TREATMENTS
CHONDROCYTE TRANSPLANTATION / IMPLANTATION
VERSUS EXISTING TREATMENTS
NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2007
Welcome to our first ever newsletter for patients participating in the ACTIVE trial. Whether you’re waiting for knee surgery, have recently had your operation, or you’re one or two years post-operation, this newsletter is for you!
Your continued participation
For those of you who have had ACI you
will know that it is a fairly major
operation followed by a lengthy
rehabilitation period. To find out
whether all this is worthwhile we rely on
getting your questionnaires and
physiotherapy assessments.
For every patient that drops out of the
trial, we will need to recruit an extra
patient, so your participation is very
important and we hope you can stay with
us for the 10-year follow-up.
For the next newsletter….
It can be very helpful to hear about the
experiences of other patients similar to
yourself. Can you or write in with
a few words about your knee-related
problems, or any tips or amusing stories
or pictures which we may publish in the
next newsletter? We will aim to publish
a newsletter every four months.
Why ACTIVE?
The ACTIVE trial will help answer an important question: whether implanting extra cartilage cells (chondrocytes) inside your knee is better than simpler surgical techniques designed to relieve symptoms and repair damaged knee cartilage.
ACI is not currently available as a routine
treatment in the NHS and the results of
this trial will help decide whether it should
become widely available to other patients
like you.
Wishing you a very
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
chondrocytes
ACTIVE Update
We started recruiting our first patients 3
years ago and now 22 hospitals have
entered a total of 187 patients into the
trial. It has taken a lot of work to get to
this number but we still need 300 more
patients to complete the trial. Luckily the
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at
Stanmore has agreed to join. Surgeons at Stanmore see a lot of patients suitable for
ACI and can enter these patients into the trial.
from the ACTIVE trial team.
ACTIVE Trial Office, ARC Building, RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry. SY10 7AG
Trial Manager: Tel: website: