Orthopedic applications of gene therapy.

A literature review of the applications of gene therapy for the treatment of orthopedic disorders was conducted, and showed that gene therapy provides us with new possibilities for the clinical management of orthopedic disorders. Most of these disorders, such as failure to obtain spinal fusion, disc degeneration, fracture and segmental bone defects, bone tumor, articular disorders, soft-tissue injury, genetic disorders, and nerve and muscular disorders, are difficult to treat by traditional surgical or medical means, and are under investigation for gene therapy. Many rapid advances have been made in the field of this novel approach. Although a number of obstacles remain to be solved before gene therapy can be applied for clinical use in humans, it is already apparent that gene therapy has the great potential of becoming a valuable clinical treatment for orthopedic disorders in the twenty-first century. With the development of gene transfer techniques, gene therapy will probably have numerous applications in orthopedic disorders.