Treatment of Kienböck’s disease with cultured stem cell-seeded hybrid tendon roll interposition arthroplasty: experimental study

Several procedures that consist of excision arthroplasty, intercarpal arthrodesis with or without excision of the lunate, proximal row carpectomy, and joint leveling procedures are used to treat advanced Kienböck’s disease. However, no reconstructive surgery for a collapsed lunate has been established. The aim of this study was to develop a method of tendon roll interposition arthroplasty using a tissue-engineering technique to improve the clinical results of the tendon roll interposition arthroplasty for treating advanced Kienböck’s disease. Twenty-four Japanese white rabbits were used for this study as three treatment models of Kienböck’s disease. The lunate of the right paw was excised, and then one of three kinds of tendon roll was interposed into the excision space as follows: group A (controls), a conventional tendon roll made of autologous Achilles tendon; group B (cored tendon roll) a tendon roll with a core of the collagen-ceramic composite; and group C (hybrid tendon roll), a scaffold seeded with cultured cells was rolled in the Achilles tendon. In all groups the right wrist was immobilized with cast 6weeks after surgery. Wrist radiography was evaluated 0, 4, 6, and 12weeks after surgery; specimens were sectioned and evaluated histologically 12weeks after surgery. In group C the small shadow of the hydroxyapatite granule gradually increased until 12weeks after surgery, whereas in group B the shadow of the core gradually decreased. The deficit spaces of the lunate remained radiographically lucent for 12weeks after surgery in group A. Histological findings revealed new bone formation at the center and stained cartilage matrix at the peripheral of the hybrid tendon roll group (group C) but not in group A or B. Radiological and histological examinations proved that it is possible to make new hybrid tendon rolls using this method, as osteogenesis in the center and cartilage matrix in the peripheral of the tendon roll were revealed.