BEAR Implant – ACL Tear Restoration & Repair
The Bridge-Enhanced ACL Restoration (BEAR®) procedure is a ground-breaking approach to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery. The BEAR® implant allows your body to heal your own ACL tear through regenerative means without the need to reconstruct, or replace the torn ligament with a graft, or tissue from another location tendon in your body or a donor. Dr. Alex Meininger is proud to be the first in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West to utilize the BEAR® procedure for ACL patients in his practice.
BEAR® Implant
This new approach to ACL surgery, the innovative BEAR® Implant, is the first technology to demonstrate clinical success with healing one's own torn ligament and represents a remarkable medical advancement for those who suffer ACL injuries. The BEAR® implant restores the ligament in lieu of replacing it and is a paradigm shift in the way of thinking for Sports Medicine specialist surgeons, like Dr. Meininger. The BEAR® implant is a protein collagen sponge sewn between the ends of the torn ACL that acts as a scaffolding to support your body's own healing potential. The operation is a minimally invasive arthroscopic procedure and does not require a second incision site or the removal of a healthy tendon for the purpose of reconstructing the torn ACL.
Clinical studies on the BEAR implant show faster recoveries of muscle strength and higher patient satisfaction, as individuals are ready to return to normal activity sooner than with traditional ACL reconstruction. The development of the BEAR implant has revolutionized the treatment of one of the most common orthopedic surgeries in the United States today and represents the most significant innovation for ACL tears in more than thirty years.
Benefits of BEAR®
- Helps your own ACL Heal
- Restores Torn ACL quality and size similar to your non-injured ACL
- Faster recovery of muscle strength
- No need for grafts, or worries about donor graft quality or risk of disease
- Minimally Invasive, Simple & Reproducible Outpatient Procedure
- Bone sparing preserving more natural anatomy
- Proven high patient satisfaction and to return to sports equal to that of ACL reconstruction with patellar tendon graft
Are you a Candidate for a BEAR® implant?
- You are at least 14 years of age and skeletally mature
- You have a complete rupture of your ACL confirmed by an MRI
- You have an ACL stump attached to the tibia to construct the repair
- You can complete the procedure within 50 days of the ACL tear
Contact Dr. Alex Meininger at the Steamboat Orthopaedic and Spine Institute today to determine if this procedure is right for you.
Research:
Bench-to-Bedside: Bridge-Enhanced Anterior Cruciate Ligament Repair (PDF)
Gabriel S. Perrone, Benedikt L. Proffen, Ata M. Kiapour, Jakob T. Sieker, Braden C. Fleming, Martha M. Murray
Original Article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jor.23632
Bridge-Enhanced ACL Repair - Two-Year Results of the First-in-Human Study
Martha M. Murray,* MD, Leslie A. Kalish, ScD, Braden C. Fleming, PhD, BEAR Trial Team, Benedikt L. Proffen, MD, Kirsten Ecklund, MD, Dennis E. Kramer, MD, Yi-Meng Yen, MD, PhD, and Lyle J. Micheli, MD
Original Article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2325967118824356
Bridge-Enhanced Anterior Cruciate Ligament Repair Is Not Inferior to Autograft Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction at 2 Years
Martha M. Murray,* MD, Braden C. Fleming, PhD, Gary J. Badger, MS, The BEAR Trial Team, Dennis E. Kramer, MD, Lyle J. Micheli, MD, and Yi-Meng Yen, MD, PhD
Original Article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0363546520913532
