Menaflex Surgery

The latest treatment option available to surgeons for patients with a torn meniscus is to remove the damaged meniscus with a partial meniscectomy and use the Menaflex™ collagen meniscus implant (formerly CMI^®) to fill in the defect.

Surgeons have known for some time that “more meniscus is better” and are thus looking for ways to preserve or replace meniscus tissue that is lost to injury, disease, or surgery.  The Menaflex procedure is a new way to preserve meniscus tissue volume and encourage growth of the patient’s own tissue.

The Menaflex device is made of a biologically-derived material and was designed to guide new tissue growth in the meniscus using the body’s own healing process.  The Menaflex provides a scaffold, or template, for the body to generate new tissue to replace the damaged tissue removed during the partial meniscectomy.

The procedure begins with a partial meniscectomy, or in cases where this has already been done the surgeon simply removes any loose or damaged meniscus tissue to prepare the remaining meniscus for the Menaflex device.  As with other meniscus procedures, the surgeon does this through arthroscopic surgery.

The Menaflex scaffold is similar in size and shape to the patient’s original meniscus.  It is trimmed to fit the meniscus defect, and then sutured into place.  Once in place, the Menaflex scaffold provides a matrix into which the body’s own cells may begin to move.  New meniscus-like tissue is created as these cells aggregate and multiply.  As tissue generation takes place, the Menaflex material is absorbed by the body.

The new tissue has the potential to restore function, reduce pain, and possibly delay the degenerative process that begins with the loss of meniscus tissue.

Learn more about Menaflex.