Cartilage regeneration procedures

Information

Articular cartilage is the tough hyaline cartilage that covers the ends of the bones at joints. It is strong and very smooth. It can become damaged due to injury and as a result of certain disease processes. This cartilage damage can be painful. Such damage can also progress to arthritis. It is therefore important to treat such cartilage damage to preserve the joint by preventing progression to arthritis

Partial thickness cartilage damage can be treated with injections such as Hyaluronic acid, PRP, or Goldic injections.

Full thickness (damage down to the underlying bone) articular cartilage loss is treated by a variety of possible techniques. We use minimally invasive day surgery techniques to deal with cartilage damage. Some techniques result in repair of the damaged hyaline cartilage, that is replacement by fibrocartilage which is not as strong as the original cartilage but better than no cartilage at all. Other techniques produce a tougher hyaline-like cartilage and therefore regenerate the damaged cartilage to a tough cartilage similar to the original hyaline cartilage.

Microfracture

A technique where multiple small holes are made in the bone at the base if the cartilage defect to allow bone marrow stem cells to escape and form small mushrooms of cartilage to cover the defect

Autologous collagen induced chondrogenesis (ACIC)

Our preferred technique. A one stage technique where a special biological scaffold is placed into the defect to guide stem cells to produce hyaline-like cartilage.

Mosaicplasty (also known as Osteoarticular transfer surgery -OATS)

Where a small area of full thickness damage has occurred, a different technique can be used to restore the cartilage – transfer surgery. A small cylinder of bone with its overlying cartilage (osteochondral cylinder) is taken from a part of the knee where it doesn’t articulate in the joint and is transferred to the cartilage defect.

Case Stories

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