2023 Jan I. Gillquist Award Winner

Alberto Grassi PhD, ITALY

Presentation Title: Isolated Meniscus Allograft Transplantation Effectively Reduces Knee Laxity In the Presence of Previous Meniscectomy: In-Vivo Navigation of 18 Consecutive Cases

I was very honored to be the first place winner of the Jan I. Gillquist Award at the 14th Biennial ISAKOS Congress in Boston, USA.

The research project awarded with this prestigious prize was entitled “Isolated Meniscus Allograft Transplantation Effectively Reduces Knee Laxity In the Presence of Previous Meniscectomy: In-Vivo Navigation of 18 Consecutive Cases" and conducted at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute of Bologna (Italy), under the supervision of Prof. Stefano Zaffagnini from the University of Bologna.

This research project represents an important contribution to the panorama of Meniscal Transplantation since it demonstrate, for the first time, "in-vivo" in human patients using a navigation system, the role of meniscal structure in controlling knee laxity. In fact, with respect to the meniscus-deficient status, the replacement of the medial or lateral meniscus apported different contributions in reducing significantly the anterior tibial translation and the magnitude of the pivot-shift.

The findings of the present study further support the statement of the International Meniscus Reconstruction Experts Forum (IMREF), which consider the Meniscal Allograft Transplantation as a possible indication, in the cases of Revision ACL Reconstruction when a previous meniscal defect has been considered, a possible contributing factor of the failure of the primary reconstruction—further strengthening the concept of menisci as secondary stabilizers of the knee.

Furthermore, this work also represents a great example of synergically contribution between multidisciplinary figures such as surgeons, researches and engineers.