Ceterix Orthopaedics Releases New Suture Passer

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Ceterix Orthopaedics Inc. has made its Novostitch suture passer commercially available in the United States. The device is designed to enable surgeons to place stitches in tight joint compartments, including those in knees, hips and shoulders, during minimally invasive arthroscopic surgical procedures.

The Novostitch suture passer offers surgeons the potential to place circumferential compression stitches in locations and patterns that were previously not possible, Ceterix claims. As a result, the technology may help surgeons avoid removing meniscal tissue in some knee injury cases that are currently considered non-repairable.

“Millions of people undergo arthroscopic procedures in the United States each year,” said John McCutcheon, president and CEO of Ceterix. “We are excited about the potential for the Novostitch technology to offer additional choices for surgeons and patients in these procedures, particularly procedures involving knee meniscal tears.”

According to 2006 research published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, meniscus tears are extremely common, and surgeries that access the curved cartilage disc in the middle of the knee are the most commonly performed arthroscopic procedures in the United States. Surgical treatment options include repair, in which the cartilage is sewn or anchored together; surgical removal of the torn section (partial meniscectomy); or surgical removal of the entire meniscus (total meniscectomy).

“Due to the difficulty of access and the limitations of current arthroscopic instruments, the vast majority of meniscal tears are not repaired, but are either partially or totally resected,” McCutcheon added. “This means that almost a million patients each year are undergoing procedures that will significantly increase their risk of osteoarthritis later in life. Our goal is to make meniscectomy less common by providing tools to make repair more feasible.”

It is well established in orthopedic literature that meniscus repair should be performed whenever possible to prevent long-term degenerative changes in the knee, as detailed in the British Medical Bulletin in 2011.

Ceterix Orthopaedics develops surgical tools to treat soft tissue injuries such as meniscus tears, hip and shoulder labrum tears, and rotator cuff tears.

Editor’s note: Last month, the journal Arthroscopy published a peer-reviewed article titled “The Circumferential Compression Stitch for Meniscus Repair” that describes the Novostitch technique. The article was written by Justin D. Saliman, M.D., a sports medicine and athroscopy orthopedic surgeon at the Cedars-Sinai Orthopaedic Center in Los Angeles, Calif.