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Kevin Robert Stone, M.D. (born June 4, 1955), is an American orthopedic surgeon, who specializes in sports medicine and injuries of the knee, shoulder, and ankle joints. He has lectured and is recognized internationally as an authority on cartilage and meniscal growth, replacement, and repair. Stone is known for his development of the paste grafting surgical technique in 1991, which is a biologic joint replacement technique for the regeneration of articular cartilage in the knee joint. He has, since, taught this technique to surgeons in the US and worldwide.

He is a founder and chairman of the Stone Research Foundation for Sports Medicine and Arthritis, a center for the treatment of athletes with joint injuries at the Stone Clinic in San Francisco, California. The Foundation conducts research in advanced surgical techniques and tissue regeneration. This research has led to advancements in cartilage replacement and regeneration, cruciate ligament repair and reconstruction, and techniques to prevent osteoarthritic degeneration. He holds more than 50 U.S. patents on healthcare inventions.

Education
Stone was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1955. He was educated at the Moses Brown School and entered Harvard College in the Class of ’77. He led the Eliot House Crew in rowing at Henley and played polo. As a cum laude graduate, he enrolled in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine graduating in 1981. He was trained at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital in internal medicine from 1981-82, then in general surgery at Stanford University Medical School from 1982-83, and lastly in orthopaedic surgery at The Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency 1983-1986. He undertook a fellowship in research at The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York under Steven Arnoczky, D.V.M. and in knee surgery in Lake Tahoe under Richard Steadman, M.D., from 1986 -1987.

Clinical Practice
Stone founded The Stone Clinic, a team of nurses, physical therapists, imaging specialists, and patient coordinators, in 1988 to focus on athletes and people with arthritis. The clinical practice goal of rehabilitating all patients to a level higher than they were before they were injured set the tone. The surgical procedures were subjected to rigorous outcomes analysis with the results reported in peer reviewed journals. The surgical techniques have been taught to surgeons around the world by lectures and videos.

Stone is a physician for the Lawrence Pech Dance Company, The Marin Ballet, and Smuin Ballets/San Francisco Ballet. He has served as a physician for the U.S. Ski Team, the U.S. Pro Ski Tour, the Honda Ski Tour, the 48 Straight Ski Tour, the Old Blues Rugby Club, the modern pentathlon at the U.S. Olympic Festival, and for the United States Olympic Training Center.

Research
Stone initiated his research career in high-altitude physiology under the direction of Ross McFarland, at the Harvard School of Public Health. Working with his associate Dr. Spengler, Stone searched for a high-altitude environment in a city and published the first paper on carbon monoxide in hockey rinks noting the effect of carbon monoxide on the hockey players' visual acuity was similar to that of hypoxia at altitude.

While in internship, Stone published one of the first case reports on the formation of a liver cancer in patients who had hepatitis C. His subsequent residency research returned to the area of tissue oxygenation focusing on ligament oxygen tension using a self-designed oximeter.

Meniscus Research
In 1984, Stone, at the encouragement of his mentor Dr. Steadman, turned his focus to replacing the meniscus cartilage in the knee joint. After two years of research to understand the biomechanics and biology of the meniscus, Dr. Stone concluded that if he couldn’t replace the meniscus, possibly he could re-grow it. With this approach he entered his Fellowship in research under the direction of Dr. Arnoczky and proceeded to design the first collagen meniscus regeneration template.

While a clinical fellow in Lake Tahoe, Stone initiated research at the Letterman Army Institute of Research in collaboration with Bill Rodkey to test the collagen template in various animal models for meniscus, ligament, articular cartilage and intervertebral disc repair. These trials were subsequently published and led to several research awards including the Albert Trillat Young Investigator’s Award from the International Knee Society and the Cabaud Award in 1990 from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. The FDA approved the first human clinical trial of the collagen meniscus scaffold which was carried out at The Stone Clinic from 1991-1994. Recent 15-year follow-ups on these patients revealed continuing successful outcomes.

Stone turned his attention to complete meniscus replacement with a biological implant(rather than re-growing the meniscus) in 1994. He published one of the first techniques for arthroscopic meniscus replacement in 1991 and conducted the first long-term study of meniscus replacement in knee joint arthritis which was published in 2006. The replacement of the meniscus permits the arthritic patient to have improved pain relief and knee joint function as well as delay or avoid the time for artificial joint replacement. In a 2 to 7 year follow-up study, 89.4% of meniscus tranplantation patients were successful, having showed significant signs of improvement in pain, activity, and functioning.

Articular Cartilage Research
In addition to meniscus replacement, Stone focused on articular cartilage regeneration for the arthritic knee. His design of a “paste graft” technique with custom instrumentation was promoted by the DePuy orthopaedic company. The paste graft technique 2-12 year results were published in 2006 revealing 85% of the patients obtained improvement in pain and function scores.

Biologic Joint Replacement
The combination of meniscus replacement and articular cartilage grafting led to Stone’s pursuit of biologic knee replacement, a technique to fully replace the damaged cartilage in the knee with natural tissues. This program is underway at The Stone Clinic and includes a stem cell with shell graft approach to replacing the articular cartilage surface of the knee.

Stone's experience with collagen scaffolds sourced from bovine Achilles tendons led him to focus on other animal tissues that might be useful for orthopaedic reconstruction. In 1996 he initiated a research program to determine if the carbohydrates that cause rejection of animal tissues could safely be removed without damaging the tissues. His research led him to the New York Blood Center where a technique for removing similar carbohydrates was developed for blood. Dr. Stone identified and collaborated with the leading immunologist in the field Dr. Uri Galili in order to transfer the blood technique to orthopaedic tissues. Their work led to multiple patents, animal trials and subsequently, a human clinical trial of a porcine bone-patellar tendon-bone graft for reconstructing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) of the knee joint. In the surgical procedure, the proteins on the transplant ligament that would trigger rejection from the recipient's body are stripped off prior to transplantation. One recipient of this pig ligament ACL transplant went on to win the Canadian Master's Downhill Ski Championship, three times. This trial has received FDA approval for a wide clinical trial to be conducted in the U.S.

Allison Gannet, a World Cup freeskier Champion, had had 7 previous knee surgeries before having a biological joint replacement, with Stone as her surgeon. This procedure included the articular cartilage paste grafting procedure, and following, Gannet reported being pain free for the first time in 8 years.

Teaching
Stone mentors nursing students, medical students, residents, fellows, and other physicians who rotate through The Stone Clinic from various institutions around the world.

He lectures widely at orthopaedic courses and hosts the annual Meniscus Transplantation Study Group Meeting as well as the annual Professional Women Athlete's Career Conference.

Additional projects
Stone is the founder or co-founder of multiple companies in addition to his orthopedic medical practice and research.

ReGen Biologics, a publicly traded medical device company focused on meniscus regeneration. At ReGen from 1984 – 1994, Stone invented the first collagen meniscus implant, a device designed to function as a regeneration template to grow a new meniscus cartilage in human knees. He tested that device in a series of experiments that led to the first successful human clinical trial of a tissue-engineered device in orthopaedics. The implant received FDA approval for sale in the United States and overseas after successful clinical trials.

CrossCart Inc., a venture capital funded medical device xenotransplantation company. At CrossCart Stone led a team with Uri Galili and Tom Turek to develop a technique for removing the antigens from pig tissues so that they may be used in humans. The first xenograft device for reconstruction of ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs) received FDA approval for human clinical trials. If successful, this technology may permit animal tissues to be used in humans without the need for immunosuppression.

Joint Juice, Inc., a San Francisco-based nutraceutical beverage company. Stone’s invention of Joint Juice was a response to his patient's statements that glucosamine helped them and their animals but that the pills were too large to take regularly. Joint Juice is the first beverage with a full day’s dose of glucosamine, proven to reduce pain, act as an anti-inflammatory, and aid in cartilage repair without side effects. Juice products are available nationwide at major warehouse clubs, grocery stores and drug stores.

Rescue Reel, LLC, a San Francisco-based supplier of personal rescue devices. Stone shared the horror of watching people leap to their deaths on 9/11 and felt compelled to relieve the problem of building egress. He worked with an engineering team to design Rescue Reel, the first personal rescue device that individuals can use to escape from buildings up to 100 stories. The device is expected to gain wide application both for commercial buildings, residential buildings, oil rigs, ships, military applications and fire rescue.