Focus on Safety:
Matracell® Technology Shows Potential to Revolutionize Pediatric Cardiac Surgery
 Surgeons across the country are discovering that LifeNet Health's cardiac allograft bio-implants with patented Matracell® technology have the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life and outcomes in pediatric cardiac surgery. In 2009, four centers began using CardioGraft® with Matracell for pediatric pulmonary arterioplasty in a pilot study. By the close of 2010, the technology had been applied in 260 implants and results show early indications that CardioGraft with Matracell is successful in preventing restenosis, reducing graft calcification which may reduce the need for subsequent surgeries.
Matracell is a patented and validated process that renders allograft bio-implants acellular, without compromising the biomechanical or desired biochemical properties of an allograft bio implant for its intended surgical application. Matracell technology for cardiac application removes over 99% of donor genetic material. It is well documented in surgical literature that the donor cell component of cryopreserved cardiovascular tissue is the source of its primary failure modes: calcification and stenosis. Matracell technology is a methodology that safely removes donor cells from cardiovascular tissues while retaining the native biomechanical strength of the tissue. The technology has been utilized in skin grafts and was cleared for cardiac application in 2008.
"One of the challenges we face with pediatric pulmonary arterioplasty is that the best material, which is allograft human tissue, can be rejected by the recipient," explains Richard A. Hopkins, MD, Director, Cardiac Surgery Research Laboratories at The Children's Mercy Hospital. "Matracell offers the advantage of removing cells from the donor tissue and reducing the recognition of tissue as foreign, which allows us to make reconstruction with better results. The physical properties of the tissue are changed slightly so the material actually handles better than standard tissue transplant and functions as a refined version of the human allogeneic material."
Parents of pediatric patients are relieved to learn that allograft bio-implants with Matracell technology, there is a reduced need for future surgeries. "Children with pulmonary artery disease often have other medical conditions that require a variety of surgical procedures," says Dr. Hopkins. "Anything we can do to minimize the risk of complications from additional surgeries is good news for parents."
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