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Arthroscopic abrasion

Arthroscopic abrasion is a surgical technique for the management of early arthritis, where the surgeon takes a rotating burr and rubs the damaged surface down to bleeding bone. The philosophy is that blood vessels will nourish the damaged area and primitive blood cells will reform into joint cartilage cells and cover the damaged area with a new healthy surface.

The term ‘arthroscopic abrasion’ is often used interchangeably with the term ‘abrasion arthroplasty’, but the latter should really be reserved for instances where a deformed arthritic joint surface is re-shaped using the technique of arthroscopic abrasion.

Arthroscopic abrasion is part of an armamentarium of procedures which are now available to help reverse the damage of early arthritis:

• lavage, debridement
• abrasion arthroplasty, sub chondral drilling, microfracture
• osteochondral allograft and autograft (OATS procedure, mosaicplasty, paste grafting)
• autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI or MACI) or transplantation (ACT)