Background
Articular cartilage is susceptible to mechanical trauma. Injury can occur through a single traumatic event or repetitive overloading with forces exceeding the biomechanical carrying capacity of articular cartilage. The treatment of a focal full-thickness articular defect in the knee has continued to present a challenge, with no traditional treatment method providing consistent acceptable long-term clinical results.
Objective
The aim of this study is to evaluate the short-term functional outcome of the treatment of osteochondral defects of the knee with autologous osteochondral transplantation using the osteochondral autograft transfer system technique.
Patients and methods
This prospective study includes 19 adult patients, 16 men (84.2%), and three women (15.8%) with focal articular cartilage full-thickness defects of the knee less than 2 cm in diameter. The mean age of the patients was 29.6 years (range 22–35 years). All of them were treated by arthroscopic assisted osteochondral autograft transplantation in the period between May 2006 and June 2009. The mean follow-up period was 24.2 months (range 12–36 months). For a standard comparison between the preoperative and postoperative state of the knee, the Hospital for Special Surgery knee service rating system (HSS) was used, which assigns a maximum 100 points to a normal knee.
Results
About 84.2% (16 patients) of the patients were very satisfied with their results. All of these patients had satisfactory HSS results. Statistically, there was a highly significant correlation between patient assessment and postoperative results.
Conclusion
Osteochondral autograft has a good rate of success and reliability of subchondral bone healing, with a high survival rate of the articular cartilage graft and consequently improvement in joint function and pain relief.