The Knee Learning Resource
Grafting cartilage cells in the form of a tissue 'paste'.
This is a procedure for filling in areas of damaged articular cartilage in which bone is exposed in order to stimulate the production of new cartilage and the filling in of the defect.
Loose damaged joint cartilage is cleaned up with a shaver or similar instrument. The exposed bone is deeply microfractured by picking into it with a microfracture pick. This is done deeper than in a real microfracture, penetrating the 'tide mark' layer of any residual articular cartilage (into an area resistant to shear). Plugs of normal articular cartilage are removed from the notch in the femur and then ground up (morselised) in preparation for pasting back into the softened bone of the 'picked' area. The paste is then tightly packed into the defect.
The concept is that the ground up cell matrix will regenerate and fill the defect.
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