Mellow's Story: Innovation Close to Home
It's been five years since Movora set out to support veterinary professionals with innovative solutions, and sometimes that support can hit close to home. To celebrate five years, we are sharing five success stories, including one from our own Movora family: Mellow's.
Pioneering doesn't always look like a breakthrough surgery. Sometimes it's an engineer bringing her own work home when her family needs it most, trusting her own design enough to put it to the real test. That confidence is what carried Mellow through surgery, leading to a full recovery.
Mellow is an 11-year-old domestic shorthair who tore her cranial cruciate ligament (CrCL) in her right back leg after jumping from her cat tree. She was also born with Grade 1 medial patellar luxation (MPL), adding to the complication of the surgery.
Her pet parent, Dr. Christina Rohlf, is a Product Design Engineer at Movora. She brought Mellow to Palm Beach Veterinary Specialists to be evaluated and provided the Adaptiv TPLO-M plate with a 2.0mm offset, a plate she helped design, to Dr. Jason Tarricone for the surgery.
Mellow underwent a semi-cylindrical recession trochleoplasty (SCRT), medial fascial release, and lateral imbrication for the surgical repair of the MPL. The plate allowed Dr. Tarricone to treat both the CrCL tear and the MPL concurrently—a single surgical solution for a complex, combined presentation.
At her two-week post-op check, Mellow's limp had improved significantly; imaging confirmed the plate was stable and she was clinically sound. Today, Mellow is back to doing what cats do best, running around the house on her new leg.
"It is truly through Movora's generosity, community involvement, and phenomenal staff that we at Clay Humane were able to help pull Sprig from certain euthanasia in a municipal shelter to his new life on his newly repaired legs. We truly can't thank you enough." — Dr. Broadhurst, Clay Humane Animal Clinic
Why treat CrCL and patellar luxation concurrently?
Concurrent CrCL and patellar luxation cases are more commonly discussed in dogs, but the same biomechanical logic applies in cats like Mellow. Stifle instability from the CrCL tear can worsen luxation, and vice versa. In Mellow's case, correcting the luxation required the semi-cylindrical recession trochleoplasty to deepen the trochlear groove, performed using the NGD SCRT system alongside the CrCL repair rather than as a separate procedure. Addressing both in a single procedure, rather than staging two separate surgeries, reduces cumulative anesthesia time and gives the joint one recovery period instead of two. An offset plate design, like the Adaptiv TPLO-M's 2.0mm offset, allows surgeons to correct the ligament instability without compromising trochlear alignment.
Meet the Surgeon
Dr. Jason Tarricone,
DVM, DACVS-SA
Palm Beach Veterinary Specialists
Palm Beach, FL, United States
The surgeon who performed Mellow's combined CrCL and MPL repair.
Meet the Engineer
Dr. Christina Rohlf
Product Design Engineer, Movora
Mellow's pet parent, and one of the engineer's behind the Adaptive TPLO-M plate used in her own cat's surgery.
Q & A with Dr. Christina Rohlf
What was your first reaction when Mellow was injured?
"I was actually surprisingly calm. I'd seen enough CrCL tears in dogs that I was pretty sure what had happened, and I was confident in the treatment options and that they're typically very successful. Our GP had previously diagnosed Mellow with a low-grade medial patellar luxation, so it made sense to correct that surgically at the same time as the CrCL tear."
Why did you seek out Dr. Tarricone specifically?
"Given the publications that detailed the benefits of the SCRT system for feline patients, I really wanted to find a surgeon that used the SCRT system. Upon reviewing that paper, I was beyond excited to find that one of the authors (Dr. Tarricone) was within driving distance and immediately called him to request that he do Mellow's surgery."
How did the Adaptiv TPLO-M plate end up being used?
"As I was finalizing things at work to be out of office for Mellow's surgery, I realized we had just received prototypes for our Adaptiv plate — a combined treatment for MPL and CrCL. It removes the need for a secondary osteotomy and tibial tuberosity transposition, which reduces the hardware and the amount of bone remodeling after surgery. I wasn't sure if Dr. Tarricone would want to try a brand-new plate, but he was eager to, and found it fit perfectly during the surgery."
How is Mellow doing now, and what does this mean to you?
"Fortunately, Mellow's recovery went smoothly, and she's now almost a year out and clinically sound. I'm really proud and excited that a plate I helped design was able to directly change the life of a patient near and dear to my heart."
Our Why
Stories like Mellow's are exactly why this anniversary is about more than five years of Movora, it's five years of building solutions alongside the surgeons—and sometimes the engineers—who put them to use every day. Our thanks go to Dr. Tarricone and the team at Palm Beach Veterinary Specialists, and to our own Dr. Rohlf, who brought her expertise home when her own cat needed it most.
This story is part of our 5 Years, 5 Stories series, celebrating five years of Movora and the surgeons, pet parents, and patients who make our work matter.
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