Congratulations to Industry Partner, AxoGen on their landmark surgical procedure involving the use of AxoGen’s AxoGuard® Nerve Protector featured on “The Doctors”!

Official News Release:

On Wednesday, September 26, 2016, the national daytime talk show The Doctors is scheduled to present a story about a landmark surgical procedure involving the use of AxoGen’s AxoGuard® Nerve Protector.
 
The segment will feature an interview with Ajay K. Seth, MD, orthopedic surgeon at Spectrum Orthopedics in Canton, Ohio, and his patient, 44-year-old amputee Melissa Loomis. Melissa’s arm was amputated above the elbow last year after a seemingly benign raccoon bite on her wrist became severely infected. During the months following her amputation, Melissa experienced severe nerve pain, including phantom limb pain, from her damaged nerves. In December 2015, Dr. Seth sought to reduce Melissa’s nerve pain  and restore some nerve function to her arm by performing what is believed to be one of the first surgeries that combines TMR/TSR (Targeted Muscle Reinnervation and Targeted Sensory Reinnervation) procedures in the U.S.
 
The purpose of the TMR procedure is to concentrate the amputated motor nerve fibers into a small piece of muscle and the goal of the TSR procedure is to concentrate amputated sensory fibers into small areas near the skin, thereby providing a functional target that can be used to signal movement in a prosthetic device and in this case also provide sensory feedback.
 
In this procedure Dr. Seth utilized AxoGuard® Nerve Protector to isolate and protect the retargeted nerves, preventing the loss of the regenerating axons and creating a protective environment for the damaged nerves to reinnervate the new targets.  AxoGuard® Nerve Protector serves as a soft tissue graft to help support the body’s natural healing process and protect the area from soft tissue attachments.
 
Melissa’s nerves have successfully regenerated and re-innervated their targets.  Melissa now has motor control as well as simulated sensory feedback allowing her to feel each of the five fingers on her prosthesis.  In addition to the new function, this surgery was also successful in alleviating Melissa’s phantom pain.
 
This is an exciting time in applications of advanced surgical technique in nerve repair, and AxoGen is very pleased to be a part of this historic event and surgical advancement.
 
We hope you will try to watch The Doctors show this Wednesday. Visit this link to check your local listings, or visit the show’s website at www.thedoctorstv.com.