Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/433487
Graftbolt: A sheathand-screw design that helps ensure ACL reconstructive surgery is successful 45 Anterior cruciate ligament ('ACL') tearing is one of the top five footballers' injuries. ACL injury affects 1 in 3,500 people, resulting in 95,000 new ACL ruptures per year in the UK. The ACL can be reconstructed using the patient's own hamstring tendons to form a multiple-strands tendon graft that is secured in the tibia and femur. However, problems arise in up to 25% of these cases due to loss of fixation within the tibia. Graftbolt was designed in Manchester to overcome these problems. ACL damage, being a footballers' injury, is familiar to many people in Manchester which, naturally, is a very fertile ground for sports-related medicine. 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 ■ TALENT ■ CULTURE PLACE ■ HISTORY ■ SUPPORT ■ OPEN/INDUSTRY ORIENTATION ■ GLOBAL LINKS ■ RESEARCH Why Manchester? Chart illustrates the factors that influenced the Graftbolt programme potential benefit to patients coupled with the offer of matched funding from the University. A collaboration agreement was signed between UHSM, TRUSTECH and the University for the intellectual property (IP) to be managed by Graftbolt TRUSTECH, with royalties shared with the University. A good working relationship already existed between the bodies involved through MANIP, an earlier collaboration between some of the Manchester NHS Trusts and the University on the identification and commercialisation of IP arising from bioscience. Martyn Snow had a number of contacts within the medical device industry and approached several companies in association with TRUSTECH in an attempt to commercialise the device. The early prototypes were producing comparative performance on cadaver tests (carried out in Florida) as fully industrialised products. Following these introductions and tests TRUSTECH took over the commercial negotiations and the technology was licensed in 2010 to Arthrex - a global orthopaedic medical device company headquartered in Naples, Florida USA. www.arthrex.com/knee/graftbolt