The repair of cruciate ligaments with flexible carbon fibre. A longer term study of the induction of new ligaments and of the fate of the implanted carbon

Abstract

Carbon fibre appears to induce the formation of tendon in both animals and humans. Experiments have been conducted in sheep in which new anterior cruciate ligaments have been induced in response to the implantation of filamentous carbon fibre. Long-term studies indicate that the carbon fibre slowly breaks up at the site of implantation and later begins to appear in the regional lymph nodes.