The tibia of a child healed thanks to a 3D bone graft, a world first

Steph Deschamps / September 24, 2020

Surgeons at Saint-Luc University Clinics have repaired the tibia bone of a 5-year-old child with an 18cc bone graft implant, UCLouvain announced Thursday. This is a world first in the field of orthopedic surgery.

The child has congenital nonunion of the tibia, a rare and disabling condition that prevents healing of a broken tibia. The surgeons at Saint-Luc clinics therefore used the technology of the UCLouvain Novadip Biosciences spin-off to graft a young patient with a 3D tissue implant of more than 18 cm³.

The graft, which could be compared to a kind of plasticine, is directly implanted in the non-healing fracture, ”the university explains. “One year after implantation, the results show sufficient bone remodeling to allow the patient to walk painlessly and without apparent disease recurrence. « 

Today, two years after the operation, the child is walking normally.

This "three-dimensional cell therapy" is showing very promising results for the treatment of rare pediatric orthopedic disorders, says the university.

Novadip aims to find new solutions for the reconstruction of bone tissue in patients for whom there is no treatment. Scientists focus on healing damaged tissue by restoring its natural physiology.