The innovative orthopedic procedure comes out of a region known for setting trends for the rest of the country, from snowboarding or plastic surgery, Southern California, specifically San Diego. It's been the seat where orthopedic surgeons, including Dr. William Bugbee MD of University of California, San Diego, helped develop the transplantation technique that can significantly improve the quality of life for patients with defective ankles. Most of these people are young, active individuals, who are really too young for joint replacement or who maybe don't have severe enough disease to consider that. Even in older people it can wear out. Unlike fusion, Bugbee says osteochondral allografting can restore motion of the ankle and also relieve pain.
Surgeons remove damaged cartilage and bone and replace it with healthy donor tissue.
You're basically putting a new tread on the joint. UCSD pioneered the knee operation, then discovered the techniques could be applied to the lower joint. Just like a heart transplant, ankle patients need to wait for a donor to come along, a wait which can last a year or longer for the right donor and the right fit. Rejection of the tissue isn't really a problem generally, but disease transmission, though remote, can be. Knee and ankle surgeries carry a 70 percent success rate.