Smith+Nephew’s NOVOSTITCH Meniscal Repair System shows 91.7% success rate in “STITCH” Study at one-year follow-up

Smith+Nephew (LSE:SN, NYSE:SNN), the global medical technology business, is pleased to announce results for its NOVOSTITCH Meniscal Repair System today at the International Cartilage Regeneration & Joint Preservation Society (ICRS), Vancouver, Canada highlighting one-year results of the STITCH Study.

The STITCH Study is the first prospective clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of repairing Horizontal Cleavage Tears (HCTs) - one of the most common meniscal tears affecting approximately one-third of patients with this injury.¹ The results of the study demonstrated:

1. A success rate of 91.7% (reoperation rate of only 8.3%), and 

2. A significant improvement in knee pain and function in all Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) including KOOS, IKDC, Lysholm and Tegner scores.

Smith+Nephew’s NOVOSTITCH Meniscal Repair System addresses complex meniscal tear patterns not adequately served by other repair systems. Typically, HCTs are treated conservatively or by partial resection, commonly referred to as a meniscectomy, which may put the patient at risk for adverse changes to the knee joint, leaving them open to osteoarthritis or total knee replacement later in life.^2,3 Historically, in studies of HCT repair over a follow-up period ranging from 11-70 months, the success rate averaged approximately 78%.⁴

“As more surgeons choose to repair versus resect the meniscus, these positive data points help expand this option to more patients with tears previously considered irreparable.”^4,5 said Dr. David Flanigan, Director of the Cartilage Restoration Program at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and co-author of the STITCH Study.

“Smith+Nephew’s goal is to transform the surgical paradigm by elevating the standard of care for meniscal tears to a repair instead of a meniscectomy where appropriate,” stated Brad Cannon, President of Global Sports Medicine and ENT at Smith+Nephew. “Currently more than 1.2 million meniscal tears are treated surgically in the US each year with only 15-20% of the cases receiving a repair rather than removal.⁶ This needs to change,” Cannon remarked.

STITCH Study Principal Investigator and orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Peter Kurzweil, Memorial Orthopaedic Surgical Group, commented, “The one-year results from STITCH are compelling as the data challenges the notion that HCTs have an unacceptably low rate of repair success when in fact, they have comparable success rates to those of other meniscal tears.”

The STITCH Study will continue to follow patients for two years post-operatively.

The NOVOSTITCH^TM Meniscal Repair System, available only in the US, is highly complementary to Smith+Nephew’s leading All Tears, All Repairs meniscal repair portfolio. To learn more about our portfolio and the NOVOSTITCH PRO please visit: http://www.AllTearsAllRepairs.com

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Dave Snyder
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Smith+Nephew

About Smith+Nephew

Smith+Nephew is a portfolio medical technology business that exists to restore people’s bodies and their self-belief by using technology to take the limits off living. We call this purpose ‘Life Unlimited’. Our 16,000+ employees deliver this mission every day, making a difference to patients’ lives through the excellence of our product portfolio, and the invention and application of new technologies across our three global franchises of Orthopaedics, Advanced Wound Management and Sports Medicine & ENT. Founded in Hull, UK, in 1856, we now operate in more than 100 countries, and generated annual sales of $4.9 billion in 2018. Smith+Nephew is a constituent of the FTSE100 (LSE:SN, NYSE:SNN). The terms ‘Group’ and ‘Smith+Nephew’ are used to refer to Smith & Nephew plc and its consolidated subsidiaries, unless the context requires otherwise.

For more information about Smith+Nephew, please visit www.smith-nephew.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook.

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