AxoGen’s Avance Nerve Graft Helps Woman Race Horses Again
Beth Thiele remembers what her foot felt like after having her fourth foot surgery 2 1/2 years ago to try to fix damage caused by osteoarthritis.
“It’s like being electrocuted,” she says. It was like electrical streaks of pain were spreading out all over her foot every time she moved it.
Unable to do any activity outside the house, Thiele looked for help online. A Facebook group on nerve pain connected her with Dr. Craig Thomajan, who has been using AxoGen’s Avance nerve grafts to replace problematic areas of nerves that are causing pain for five years. AxoGen is a UF startup and an alum of UF Innovate | Sid Martin Biotech.
The grafts allow the body to rebuild healthy nerves that send normal signals instead of pain signals. Thomajan has used Avance to fix nerve injuries caused by surgery or traumatic injury. The patients are in unimaginable pain, he says, and often have been prescribed pain killers or an electric nerve stimulator or had multiple surgeries to fix the problem without success.
With the benefit of the Avance nerve graft, ThieleShe stopped awakening in the middle of the night screaming in pain and now is racing horses again.
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