Naples-based Arthrex plays role in recovery of Aaron Rodgers

Naples-based Arthrex played a role in the recovery of Aaron Rodgers.

Met Life Stadium, home to the New York Jets, might be more than a thousand miles from Naples, but the two locations are tied together with Quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Rogers went down after his fourth snap during his debut Monday night against the Bills, when he tore his Achilles tendon. He underwent surgery to repair his Achilles, making use of technology developed by Naples-based Arthrex.

Rodgers went to social media to share a pic from his hospital bed, thanking doctors for the cutting-edge treatment. Miles away in Naples, Florida, John Andrews, Senior Product Manager, Distal Extremities & Trauma at Arthrex, watched the whole thing.

“I immediately knew what happened. I had a good hunch that it was going to going to be an Achilles rupture just based on the foot being planted and him pushing off with heavy weight on him,” Andrews said.

In a matter of hours, doctors with Arthrex training used the manufacturer’s tools to patch the injured quarterback. The game-changer is the Speedbridge, a technology Andrews oversees.

“The sutures that are put through the tendon on the top end, come down through anchors and are put into the heel bone, and it creates a knotless repair, so you’re not actually ever having to tie a knot,” Andrews said.

The speed bridge threads high-strength suture tape, which looks like a string, through both sides of the tendon, then tightly pulls them together, holding them in place until the tendon re-attaches. It is all done through a cut that is about 2 – 3 centimeters. Three centimeters is the size of a half-dollar coin. This minimally invasive approach is part of the procedure’s success.

“We’ve condensed it down to very small incisions, which helps with recovery time,” Andrews said.

Arthrex built its name on innovative techniques aimed at sports injuries. A surgeon from the Greenbay Packers helped create this Achilles repair, and he’s used it on hundreds of elite athletes.

“Bob Anderson has been one of our top surgeons that’s used our systems and over 200 different elite athletes, pro athletes, NFL players, college athletes,” Andrews said.

Topping it off is the jumpstart wound dressing, embedded with microcell batteries made of silver and zinc that generate electrical currents to kill bacteria, kind of like a Band-Aid that gets put over the top and helps heal that wound.

Together, these products are getting athletes and everyday patients back on their feet and in top form.

The Arthrex Achilles mid-substance Speedbridge repair system is helping everyday people. It has been used on more than 50,000 patients.