Father-to-son tendon transplant: on Repubblica
“First time in Italy for the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee with a transplant from a living donor, a father, to his 14-year-old son.
The “surgery took place at the” hospital in Pinerolo (Turin), in the Orthopedics department directed by Sergio Ronco. It was performed by Mario Formagnana, from the “hospital, and by Simone Perelli from” Icatme, Barcelona, under the coordination of Ronco, together with the operating room teams of Pinerolo, in collaboration with the Regional Transplant Center.
“We performed the ‘surgery simultaneously in two operating rooms – explains Formagnana -. In one, we harvested the tendons from the father, and in the’ other, we used them to reconstruct the cruciate ligament in the son”.
Until now in Italy, autologous tendons, meaning one’s own, or tendons from deceased donors distributed by Tissue Banks have been used for reconstruction. The latter provide excellent results in adult patients, while in pediatric patients they have shown a high failure rate. “In pediatric patients, however, tendons are often too small. For our 14-year-old patient, still in the growth phase, the ‘surgery had to be performed using a pediatric technique. However, the boy showed anthropometric characteristics that suggested an autograft of tendons would have been insufficient in size. For this reason, the’ surgery was performed using the father’s tendons”. “
At the following link is the Repubblica article about this innovative surgery, the first in Italy
