SUPARTZ Success

Lisa

Her entire life, Lisa has been active – working out regularly and participating in a range of sports including tennis and biking. When she was diagnosed with a torn meniscus in her right knee, she thought her days of being active might be over. After a surgery to repair the torn meniscus and follow-up physical therapy, her knee still wasn’t functioning properly.

Lisa was experiencing constant discomfort from what felt like the grinding of bone-on-bone in her right knee. It was then that she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee. While many people experience moderate pain relief from ibuprofen, acetaminophen and glucusamine/chondroitin, these over the counter medications had little impact on Lisa’s discomfort.

After weeks of nagging pain, Lisa was referred to the Rothman Institute, an orthopaedic specialty center in Philadelphia, PA. In addition to the discomfort she was experiencing, her biggest issue was the fluid retention in her knee. Lisa went through the process of having it drained, but shortly after each draining, the knee would swell again. She was frustrated with the discomfort, the swelling and her inability to enjoy the activities she was used to. It was then that her specialist, Dr. Peter Vitanzo Jr. suggested she try SUPARTZ® Joint Fluid Therapy from Smith & Nephew.

After her first series of injections, she felt immediate relief. Now, Lisa has absolutely no pain.

She is now looking forward to a future of being pain-free, getting back into the swing of things and enjoying the activities she loves.

Joan

Sidelined by knee pain in 2003, Joan went to her physician for advice. He discovered a meniscus tear in her right leg and osteoarthritis in both knees. He prescribed a course of physical therapy to improve her range of motion for the right leg and over-the-counter analgesics for the pain associated with her osteoarthritis. After finishing a course of physical therapy, her mobility improved and the pain subsided, but within a few weeks the constant pain had returned.

Joan’s physician prescribed a COX II inhibitor, but she stopped taking it after negative news reports concerning the medication.

Frustrated with the nagging knee pain and lack of relief from prescription medication, Joan tried the over-the-counter treatment of glucosamine and chondrotin. While many find these neutraceuticals to provide moderate pain relief, Joan did not.

It was then that Joan’s orthopaedic specialist, Dr. Peter Vitanzo Jr. from Philadelphia’s Rothman Institute, suggested trying viscosupplementation. She went through several courses of one type of injectable hyaluronic acid (HA), but pain relief results were not what she had anticipated.

Dr. Vitanzo still felt confident that viscosupplementation was the best course of treatment for her condition, so he tried Smith & Nephew’s SUPARTZ® Joint Fluid Therapy.

Unlike the other HA treatment, following each SUPARTZ injection, Joan’s knees felt progressively better. After completing a course of SUPARTZ injections in March 2005, she had no discomfort at all.

Joan was once again enjoying working out at the gym several days a week, taking walks around her neighborhood and running errands. Without the constant pain of osteoarthritis consuming her life, Joan is much happier and gets to spend even more time with her friends and family.

Please note that no treatment, including SUPARTZ, helps in every single patient.

Important Safety Information

SUPARTZ is used to relieve knee pain due to osteoarthritis. It is used for patients who do not get adequate pain relief from simple painkillers or from exercise and physical therapy.

You should not take this product if you have had any previous allergic reaction to avian proteins, feathers, egg products or hyaluronan products. You should not have an injection into the knee if you have an infection or skin disease in the area of the injection site.

SUPARTZ has been used world-wide in over 155 million injections since 1987. Safety was evaluated in five well controlled clinical trials. There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence rates of these adverse events between SUPARTZ and the control of saltwater injections.

The most common adverse events occurring in SUPARTZ-treated patients were defined as joint pain with no evidence of inflammation, joint pain with evidence of inflammation, back pain, pain (non-specific), injection site reaction, headache, and injection site pain. There was no significant difference in control and SUPARTZ treatment groups.

Ask your doctor if prescription SUPARTZ is right for you.