Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein and her team performed the first cartilage cell transplantation procedure at Bassett Healthcare recently at the Oneonta Specialty Services ambulatory surgical center.

Dr. Wittstein, Research Director for the Bassett Healthcare Shoulder and Sports Medicine Research Institute, explains the procedure.

"Implantation of the patient's own cartilage cells that are cultured so that we can actually grow new human cartilage that belong to the patient and then reinsert it in the patient's knee to fill the defect," she said. "We haven't brought that technology to Bassett up until this point."

Wittstein says Studies show a high success rate for this procedure where previously there were few good alternatives.

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