Surgical treatment of articular cartilage defects with penetration of the underlying bone plate increases the filling of the defect from 30 to 50 %, but results also in increased thickness of the bone plate which is of concern for the long term results.
An experimental study published in the May issue of the highly rated Journal of Orthopaedic Research demonstrates that treatment including penetration of the bone plate underneath the cartilage significantly improved the degree of filling of the defect. However, the procedure also resulted in degeneration of the adjacent cartilage and thickening of the underlying bone plate. This causes concern for the long-term fate of the repaired defects. Previous studies have reported that surgical treatment with bone penetration to obtain cartilage healing shows results equal to those obtained with chondrocyte transplantation. The results of the current study underlines the need of improved methods to heal cartilage defects which are diagnosed in 10 % of all knees subjected to knee arthroscopy. The Cartilage group at the University of Oslo runs several projects aimed at regeneration of long term functional articular cartilage after injury. This study demonstrates that surgical repair methods involving penetration the bone plate induce changes similar to those seen in early phases of osteoarthritis.
This study is a collaboration between Oslo Sports Trauma Center, University of Oslo, Rikshospitalet Radiumhospitalet Medical Centre, Akershus University Hospital, Martina Hansen Hospital and Ullevål University Hospital.
Asbjørn Årøen MD, PhD has been leading the study under supervision of Professor Lars Engebretsen MD, PhD (OSTRC and Ullevål University Hospital) and Professor Finn P Reinholt MD, PhD (University of Oslo, Rikshospitalet Radiumhospitalet Medical Centre)
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