SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Each year over 800,000 active duty service members suffer a musculoskeletal injury leading to 2.2 million medical visits, 25 million lost duty days, and $3.7 billion in healthcare costs. Ligament and tendon injuries are some of the most debilitating of these injuries as they most often require surgical repair which leads to additional costs, lost duty days, and in many cases long-term sequelae failing to return the service member to full duty. Occurring in an estimated 3,000 USAF and other U.S. warfighters annually1, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are highly debilitating, expensive to treat, and have a long recovery time. More than 50% of service members with ACL injury have their activity limited or are unable to return to duty following surgery2. Persistent pain and stiffness of the knee3 and a 20% failure of the ACL again within 2 years are also reported in patients4. Return to full duty following ACL reconstruction in active-duty soldiers is lower than may be expected, with on average 267 lost days of duty, and a dramatic reduction in years of service5. Embody, Inc. seeks to return the military’s most important resource-- its people-- to full duty through the effective repair and regeneration of the ACL offering a distinct and uncontested military advantage over its adversaries. MICROBRACETM ACL repair implants are engineered with an ultimate tensile strength and modulus that is comparable to native ACL strength. The collagen graft is designed to be bio-integrated with the patient’s ACL allowing for return to normal biomechanical functionality. 1. Bottoni et. al. Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstructions in Active-Duty Military Patients. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.otsm.2005.10.008 2. Antosh et. al. Return to Military Duty After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction. https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usx007 3. Wasserstein et al, 2015. 4. Kaeding et al, 2010 5. Sheean, et al, JAAOS, 2021
