orthopedic surgeon's procedure regenerates damaged fingers
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/lifestyles/582151,5_5_WA01_FINGER_S1.article October 1, 2007 BY KENDRICK MARSHALL kmarshall@scn1.com Starfish can regrow their arms, salamanders can regrow their tails, and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Becker is claiming it's possible that humans could have the realistic ability to regrow severed fingers. Becker's technique, called the Regen-it, offers patients an alternative to surgery that provides equal or better results with good sensation and good cosmetic appearance without loss to the length of the finger. With a successful procedure, patients can return to work within a week after sustaining severe finger injuries. With more than 150 patients who have had the procedure performed successfully, Becker said the development of saving fingers has evolved rather rapidly in just the last few years. Usually patients who severed a finger would arrive at the emergency room and have a doctor clean the area, apply a few stitches and discard the severed part of the finger, resulting in a shorter digit. In cases where the bone is exposed the treatment involves a shorter finger, loss of sensation and a second surgery. With the Regen-it procedure, a patient's entire finger has the ability to be saved with little pain involved in the healing process. It is the first non-surgical treatment for this type of injury in the U.S. Becker said the surgery is less risky for patients than surgery because they do not develop scar tissue and they regain more sensation in their fingertips. The method also allows finger regeneration without using tissue from other parts of the body. The key to the whole procedure is trying to save the bone that will allow the tissue to retransform and achieve some finger growth. A quick and full recovery from the injury is a specially designed, lightweight cast that protects the damaged finger from further injury or possible infection. Becker has customized the cast to hold an antibiotic cream and an occlusive dressing in place to allow the patients to not only heal, but to continue to work without restrictions. "People don't have time to take days off from their jobs to heal from an injury," he said. "My patients want to be able to get back to work as quickly as possible. That is what this cast allows them to do." Becker said his cast has developed from a bulky, immovable wrap, to a more flexible device that is comfortable and simple. However, Becker said his ultimate goal now is to get more orthopedic hand surgeons to adopt his technique. However, many doctors are unwilling to revert from the traditional surgical procedures. "It has been my experience, given the choice, patients will elect for non-surgical methods over surgical," he said. "This technique can be done by a non-surgical physician easily." In his attempt to spread the word about his technique, Becker has developed a regeneration kit that he hopes patients and doctors will be able to use as well. With FDA approval pending, Becker is hoping to market the kit to primary care doctors, patients and the insurance industry. "Everything is developing so fast today," he said. I don't know what we will be able to do in the next few years when it comes to regrowing body parts. It's an exciting time for me right now."

Holly mutant fingers batman!!

Great find TT and jdog!!! It gives us all HOPE!!

any feed back from them yet or have we contacted them

He just sent the link. I dont know what he uses but according to the site it's not very good at regrowing bone. Flesh around bone but not bone itself.

jdog, Yes that is correct. However in at least one case the person grew back the finger tissue so that it looked completely normal except it was missing the bone. Thus it was a very floppy finger tip. In the case of the turbinate, this would actually work just fine. In fact it is common that ENT's remove the turbinate bone to reduce the size of it. Thus, just the tissue itself is fine as long as it can gain some length and size. The thing is that this doctor does this with only fresh injuries. I do not think he has done his technique on old injuries.

I think it is important to note that in the article, the doctor says that regeneration technology is moving so fast. He is excited to see it develop over the next few years. I think that there is a lot of hope in regenerative medicine and that growing tissue back is no longer science fiction but a reality. From what I've read this doctor uses a dressing that may contain colloidal silver and anti-microbial ingredients.

I think our product of choice in the end will be acell but the more regeneration products and trials the easier it will be for a doctor to be willing ot apply it. I do find the regenerative abilities of colloid silver intersting....

guys of any of these materials are any fda approved yet in the us or how about over seas..i mean i just travelled 7 hours by plane to see houser what's a 9 hour plane ride to europe or somewhere like that no biggy..lol

My opinion, based on common sense and on reading a little bit into the science behinds these products, is that in the short run, meaning in the next decade or so - if and when these products will be applicable to the turbinates - they will help only those who have much of the turbinate bones remaining. Thus, for most of us, at least for the next decade or so, I'm afraid that implants are are only practical option. I for one am not going to wait around for another decade for something perhaps even not much better (who knows...) to appear. I'm all for tissue engineering cutting edge technologies (this is why I chose my initials - TE), but we have to differentiate between the short run and the long run - between our suffering in the here and now and between our suffering ten years from now. I believe we have to utilize what we are offered now (conventional implant technology) to improve our lives now, so we have the strength and will power to survive another 10 years or so and support and encourage these new technologies to come up with better solutions in the further future. We have to keep our feet on the ground and our heads in the sky, and always work for the here and now and for the future simultaneously, other-wise we will never make it.

I dont think it has to be an either or situation. if one is elegible for the implants then they should have them and if something better comes just have them removed and redone thats why it's called tissue regeneration. if your not a good candidate for the implants then there is hope and maybe it's right around the corner.... personally i wish i could just clone myself transfer my conscienceness and while they are at it make me a few years younger...but that may take a decade or two to happen 8()

I dont think it has to be an either or situation. if one is elegible for the implants then they should have them and if something better comes just have them removed and redone thats why it's called tissue regeneration. Then you agree with me that we have to do what we can to improve our life quality now, while we keep fostering and promoting the vision of regenerating, using in-vivo or in-vitro techniques, real turbinate bone, submucosa and mucosa. I felt a need to say this out clearly, because the enthusiasm in which some of us have been posting on these very new cutting edge technologies (that are not going to be applicable in the next couple of years) can confuse some of our fellow ENS sufferers to think that this technology can be implemented almost immediately or at worst in a year or two with great success, while the reality is that it is probably much further away, plus this technology is so new and that there it is too early to assess at all the potential dangers in it (for example - no body knows for sure what happens with tissue regenerated by stem cells in the long term - does it develop naturally following a slow natural pattern of the aging process or will it have greater than normal susceptibility to genetic mutations like cancer?). I feel that many confused patients ENS patients might decide that it is worth their while to wait for these technologies, meaning that they will suffer much more than they need too in the near future, and not to even try what conventional reconstructive rhinology has to offer straight away - the implants such as what Dr Houser preforms, which are a very known and safe procedure which has been documented in research as effective for atrophic rhinitis for almost a century now and lately with articles such as those of Kern, Rice and now Houser - as a potential significant benefit for ENS too, which is an iatrogenic sub-class of atrophic rhinitis or rhitis sicca. Further more I think that many ENS patients who could benefit greatly from implants, have this false belief that once they had implants they will not be able to use future TE technologies or more sophisticated implants which might be developed. I returned a few days ago from a visit to the U.S.A in which I met with both Dr. Houser and Kern, who both assured me that having those implants will not reduce the patient's compatibility for other kinds of implants or further therapies (including surgical ones) in the future. Thus, my conclusion is that if one can be helped by implants (and I believe that 99.9% of ENS patients can) one should take this option and enjoy a significantly better chance to improve their quality of life for the foreseeable future. This will only give us more strength and will-power to fight on, and encourage, in any possible way, further research and new cutting edge regenerative solutions to amputated turbinates in ENS.

Although i agree one should get an implant if one has the resources to do so I do not believe it is years away, it might be, but it's not unrealistic that by this time next year (I belive) that someone may have improved upon Dr. housers research (or perhaps himself) for a real regeneration. Also it's important to note that not all of us, me included, are good candidates for implants. Houser is the best judge of that. shortly i don't think someone should wait for the next thing but If you have to wait I dont think it will be as long as TE thinks. just my 2 cents and thats all its worth.

jdog, i would have to agree with you i dont believe it's that long away but who knows really...as far as houser and implants i know first hand about not being able to get them done but i'm still gonna go see him in the spring again for another cotton test unless i can find a doctor here..we all know that all implanted patients dr houser has done have had improvements so i agree with TE on if you have the resources you can opt for that but if you don't you have to wait it out and see what happens