A mosaicplasty is a surgical procedure to repair damaged joint cartilage by harvesting small cores of cartilage and bone from a non-weightbearing part of the joint and packing them into a mosaic to repair a larger weightbearing defect in the cartilage.
Page updated July 2023 by Dr Sheila Strover (Clinical Editor)
Transferring viable cartilage plugs means that the defect now has a new cartilage covering, although the gaps may fill with less robust fibrocartilage.
How do they do a mosaicplasty?
Via a mini-arthrotomy incision the bone and cartilage plugs are taken with a small corer, similar to an apple corer. The preparation of the recipient bed to exactly the right depth and the press-fitting of the mosaic of cores is performed via arthroscopy. The patient is kept non-weightbearing on crutches for up to 4 weeks.
Reference
Synonyms:
osteochondral graft
osteochondral autograft
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