Moroni Laulu-Pututau receives ground breaking new surgery

At the Div. I athlete level, doctors usually graft tissue from the existing patellar tendon to reconstruct the ACL. With Hastings and Stove, Andrews wrapped the tendon in a membrane derived from the amnion-chorion, which is the fetal sac. He then took stem cells from the pelvic bone with a needle and prepared it. After reconstructing the ACL, and wrapping the membrane around the tendon portion that is in the joint, Andrews injected those stem cells directly into the membrane sleeve around the graft.



“In effect, he placed a bath of stem cells around the tendon that is going to be the new ACL, ” Kimball said.



“Dr. Andrews has done about eight of these. He went public on Sept. 20 with these two athletes at Auburn and he describes the result as like putting fertilizer on the graft. It heals faster.”