FAIRHOPE, Ala. – Amber Maurer loves to play sports. Now a senior at Fairhope High, Maurer plays the “post” position in basketball. She also plays “midfield” on the school's soccer team. “And I like to work out,” said Maurer.

However, in 2007, a soccer accident tore her anterior cruciate ligament. It was November of 2007,” said Maurer. “I planted my foot wrong, pivoted and tore it.”

Then a student at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, this was not the first time she had hurt her knee.

“I tore it (the ACL) my freshman year,” said Maurer. The ACL, in non-medical terms is a band of tough tissue that connects the center of the knee joint where it runs from the backside of the thighbone or femur to connect to the front of the shinbone, or tibia. If you follow sports at all, you have heard “ACL injury” a lot. That's no accident. It's a frequently injured part of the knee.

Dr. Stephen Cope, an orthopedic surgeon with the Orthopaedic Group group in Mobile, was ready to repair Maurer's ACL. But, when he got in to do the repair, there were problems. “The injury took a chunk of cartilage with it,” Cope said.

“They told me it was too big to be repaired,” said Maurer. While the knee could be somewhat fixed, it would not have functioned as well, and there would be pain and stiffness. “They told me I would be pretty much done with sports,” said Maurer sadly.

Fortunately, there was another technique, Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation, to fix the cartilage in Maurer's knee. Cartilage, because it does not have a blood supply of its own, does not normally repair itself.

ACI involves going into the injured knee and extracting small samples of cartilage. The samples were then sent to Genzyme in Boston, Mass. and cloned. “It's two samples, each about the size of a Tic-Tac,” said Cope.

According to Cope, it takes about six weeks for enough cells to be grown to do the repair. The patient goes back into surgery, were the area around the missing cartilage is cleaned. The surgeon take a small bit of shinbone as well to serve as a cap over the injury. The new cartilage cells are then injected under the cap. “Hopefully, the cells regrow,” said Cope. In his experience, the operation is, “generally successful.”

The technique is not new. Cope traveled to Sweden in the early 1990s to learn the technique, but says insurance companies, saying the procedure was “experimental,” called a halt. The procedure was approved in 2000. Cope says he's done about 30.

The operation is for patients who are “15-50” years of age and is not a cure for arthritis. Cope says there are technical reasons why it has not been tried in other joints. Recovery takes about a year.

“It's a long process,” said Cope. He added that patients can not walk for six weeks after the procedure and have to use a continuous passive motion machine move the leg. Then comes a brace and extensive physical therapy.

For Maurer, the geography of her then high school made things hard. “I had classes in both buildings and there were tons of stairs,” she said adding that she stayed in a counselor's office and had classmates bring her work to her there.

She later transferred to Fairhope High. This is the first year she has been able to resume sports. She also thinks it might be her last year. “My knees are done,” she said with a sigh.

Her plans are to attend Faulkner State Community College majoring in exercise science. She plans to continue at a four-year college.

She also has to be careful of the knee. Cope says that there is a chance she will develop arthritis in it at some time. Maurer is aware of that but is happy to be moving normally now. “We will just have to see what happens,” she said.