For this month the main character of “TODAY WE MEET” will be Dr. Ferracini. “Today we meet” is a monthly section focused on IBI’s employees and partners. Let’s start with a short presentation to let you know!

Hello, I am an Orthopedics Professor at University of Genoa Medical School. My career started in Orthopaedic Basic Sciences and I carried along my passion for biology in orthopaedics for all my career. I worked on general orthopaedics as well as in orthopaedic oncology and I did a lot of trauma surgery as well. Now I am a senior surgeon and Professor in the private hospital Koelliker in Torino, which is my hometown, where I do mostly elective surgery and regenerative orthopaedics in cartilage defects and osteoarthritis.

How did you learn about SmartBone® bone substitute?

When I was working at the city trauma hospital in Torino, I often needed bone substitutes for my trauma and oncology cases. Mostly we were using allograft from the local tissue bank, but often the allograft was not ready with a reasonable time, the bone quality was low, or the type of tissue was just not the kind we needed. When the autograft was not practical or simply not enough material, I discovered that the OR repository had SmartBone® available. I started using it and my follow ups were simply that good that I wanted to learn more. So, then I went to the IBI factory, met Prof. Perale and Dr. Pertici.

Then we started a very fruitful collaboration involving both my clinical unit and my lab.

So far, we published 14 papers, and more are on the way for publication.

Please tell us the main aspects on which you can recommend SmartBone® to a possible customer.

SmartBone® can be a fast and reliable tool in the OR for any bone loss conditions, from bone filling in curetted bone tumors to acute fractures with bone losses due to trabecular compression. The availability of a reliable and off the shelf bone substitute, sometimes, makes a world of difference particularly in unexpected need of bone substitutes. And the long-term results are as good as any gold standard you compare them to.

What are the difficulties that a physician deals with the use of biomaterials in the orthopaedic sector?

Biology is a key factor in bone healing and any technique you choose must be used considering the cellular process of bone healing. This said, what I liked of SmartBone® is that it is cell friendly, as we saw in our patients as well as in the lab. SmartBone® is very compliant in cell cultures, more so than dentin slices or hydroxyapatite scaffolds, which are the standards of bone differentiation substrates in vitro.

Which surgical technique do you prefer to use SmartBone® with?

My day in-day out surgical routine involves ACL reconstruction and hip and knee revision surgeries. In situations of bone loss, I find easier and more reliable to use SmartBone® than allografts especially now in my new working location where the bone bank is not upstairs from the OR. I will keep using it in my practice and keep record of my cases.

We are at the end of the interview, thank you so much for your availability!

 Thank you too!