Dr Stone gives an explanation of how both types of knee cartilage are involved in arthritis and biologic knee replacement.

First published 2010 by Dr Kevin R Stone, and reviewed August 2023 by Dr Sheila Strover (Clinical Editor)

 

Explanation by Dr. Kevin Stone on how meniscus cartilage replacement can be beneficial if an absent meniscus is aggravating knee arthritis.

 

 

 

Transcript

Meniscus transplantation has completely changed our perception of knee arthritis and how to treat it. In the past, when a person would get arthritis, there would be wearing away of the articular cartilage of the joint - and often that was from loss of the meniscus, the shock
absorber for the joint.

Inside the joint there are two types of cartilage -

  • - there is the articular cartilage, which is the covering on the end of the bone, and
  • - there is the meniscus cartilage, the shock absorber for the joint.

Arthritis occurs when there is wearing away of this articular cartilage. Very commonly that occurs when an athlete, or a person, has torn their meniscus cartilage. At high school or college a surgeon might have removed part of that meniscus, and then over the years the patient wears away the joint, wearing away that joint surface.

In the past there was no way to replace the meniscus cartilage, or to re-grow the articular cartilage. That has completely changed! Now we can re-grow this surface (the articular cartilage), we can replace this meniscus and provide a ‘biologic joint replacementrather than an artificial joint replacement.

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