BONE
PROTEIN #737
Television News Service/Medical Breakthroughs
ŠIvanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. 1997
When you have a serious break in a bone and it's not healing well, doctors can actually take bone from other areas of your body to help the broken part. But now, researchers in New Orleans are using something new to mend broken bones and it's better than the real thing.
After a devastating motorcycle accident and 10 operations, Aaron Weston waited for over a year for his broken leg to heal. After fighting infections and at wit's end, he agreed to have it amputated.
Aaron Weston, Patient:
"I was shaken, I was scared. But I was in so much pain, I was figuring it would be better that they take it off."
Just before the amputation, the Food and Drug Administration gave the go ahead to try Osteogenic Protein or OP-1 on humans. It's a protein produced from bones that stimulates growth.
Stephen Cook, Ph.D., Director of Orthopedic Research, Tulane University Med.Center, New Orleans:
"It's spooned into the device or into the defect of the bone...the place where it won't heal. Much like you would fill a pothole or just filling in what's missing."
A rod is inserted to help stabilize the bone. Once applied, OP-1 signals cells to become bone-forming cells.
Thomas Whitecloud, M.D., Orthopedic Surgery, Tulane University Med. Center, New Orleans:
"The OP-1 seems to produce a better quality of bone quicker than utilizing the patient's own bone actually."
Aaron's broken leg bone mended within two months of his OP-1 surgery. He'll always wear a raised left shoe because he lost some bone before the operation.
Aaron Weston:
"There's a lot of things I can't do now. But I still have my life. I still have my leg. I can get around. I can walk and I don't need nobody helping me do it."
OP-1 awaits final FDA approval for use to the general public. Doctors say not only is the healing time quicker, this procedure is a lot less expensive and generally safer than the traditionally used bone graft, where bone is transferred from the patient's hip.
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