Meniscectomy is one of the most common orthopaedic procedures with over 1M performed annually in the EU and US. The knee has a medial and lateral compartment and 40% of the procedures concern the lateral meniscus. A significant part of the patients that undergo a lateral meniscectomy will later develop knee osteoarthritis (KOA) resulting in pain, swelling and impaired mobility, and a profound negative effect on the quality of life. Unfortunately, no durable solution is available, until complaints become so severe that unicompartmental or total knee replacement (UKR/TKR) is considered. However, TKR is limited to older patients (>65) due to its limited life span. Currently a pool of 350.000 relatively young lateral patients, growing every year with 70.000 patients, are stuck in a huge treatment gap (~13yrs) without any options at all, besides taking an increasing amount of pain killers. This leads to an immense economic burden of lateral KOA due to high medical costs, absenteeism and disability (€40K-€79k per patient).
ATRO Medical has developed a revolutionary prosthesis that quickly relieves pain and restores mobility for KOA patients with a dysfunctional meniscus at substantial lower healthcare costs: Trammpolin. We offer a minimally invasive procedure due to our arthroscopic approach, flexible implant and its’ fixation method by ligament tape. Our prosthesis is composed of two highly biocompatible polymers to reduce the peak pressure on the knee cartilage like a new shock breaker, and with similar mechanical properties as the native meniscus. The technology has proven itself for the medial meniscus and received the Breakthrough Device Designation of the US FDA in 2020. However, no solution is available for lateral patients due to the technical challenges, which can be overcome by ATRO Medical as the first company worldwide. For a successful market entry in 2026, we now optimize our design, conduct a First In Human-study and obtain CE-marking. Besides, we will perform a health economics analysis as a crucial step towards obtaining reimbursement.
