Total ACL Tear Repair with the BEAR Implant

The anterior cruciate ligament, more commonly called the ACL, is an important part of your knee, stabilizing the joint by connecting the femur and the tibia just below your kneecap.

ACL tears are incredibly common, impacting roughly 400,000 people in the U.S. every year. The painful injury is only made more complex by the traditionally limited number of ways to repair it.

Now, the BEAR Implant, also called the Bridge Enhanced ACL Restoration Implant, is a new technology that allows your ACL to heal itself. EvergreenHealth's orthopedic surgeons Drs. Camille Clinton and John Manning became the first surgeons in Washington state to use the leading-edge BEAR Implant for a torn ACL repair surgery in November 2022.

Traditionally, your ACL is repaired via a graft of another tendon in your body or the body of a deceased donor. While this surgery has seen a lot of success, most surgeons would agree that it is often better when the body can heal itself than when a surgeon uses outside tissue or materials.

However, the ACL is unable to repair itself because the synovial fluid that helps lubricate your knee joint doesn't allow blood to clot and, therefore, doesn't allow your body to heal.

With the new procedure, your surgeon combines the BEAR Implant with your blood and places the implant between the two torn ends of the ACL. The implant forms a clot between the two torn ends of the ligament and protects it from the synovial fluid.

Within eight weeks, the implant is resorbed into the blood and is replaced by your own body's cells, collagen and blood vessels.

While the implant offers a similar recovery time to traditional ACL reconstruction surgeries, there are a number of benefits that include restoring your natural ligament, eliminating the need for grafting from a second ligament and trending toward fewer complications.