The FDA recently approved Acuitive Technology’s CITRELOCK Interference Screw System with CITREGEN material technology, a new generation thermoset bioresorbable synthetic polymer. The system is designed to attach tissue during orthopedic surgery.
What makes the CITRELOCK system unique is the use of CITREGEN material technology, Mike McCarthy, managing partner, Acuitive, explained to DocWire News.
“We’ve designed this device so that it doesn’t harm the tendon upon insertion,” McCarthy said. “When you have a typical screw, … those threads of the screws tear at that tissue and they compromise the tissue.”
Unlike other products on the market made of a thermal plastic polylactic acid, the CITRELOCK is made of a citric acid-based thermoset material.
“Polylactic acid is a by-product. It needs to be evacuated from the system, your body … [With] citritc acid on the other hand, the citrate molecule gets absorbed. So this material, the vast majority … is used as an energy source by the body, by the cells,” he described.
The CITREGEN system also facilitates healing, McCarthy noted: “[Other systems] expect the body’s own healing properties to do all the healing on its own. Our device from day one starts to an elution process of various molecules.”
The device will be easy for surgeons to use as well.
“It’s a tap-in system rather than a thread system that tuts at the tissue that you’re trying to relocate within the anatomy. So [it] protect[s] the tissue upon insertion,” McCarthy shared.
Looking ahead, there’s a lot of exciting news in the pipeline for CITREGEN technology in the world of orthopedics. Future possibilities include roles in rotator cuff repair, Achilles tendon repair, diabetic/ulcerative wound healing, and using larger devices in procedures such as revision surgery.
“This is the most exciting technology we have affiliated with,” McCarthy said. “We think this by far has so much potential beyond what we’ve done in the past.”
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