Cartilage repair - ACI and MACI

Both of these techniques involve taking a small amount of healthy cartilage from the patient, sending it to a laboratory to be grown as a tissue culture and then returned to the patient for implant.

In ACI the defect is sealed over with a membrance sewn over the hole, and the cells are injected behind the membrane as a suspension.

In MACI the cells are grown onto a collagen scaffold or 'matrix' in the laboratory, and then the cell-rich scaffold is sewn into place to fill the cartilage defect.

ACI stands for 'autologous chondrocyte implant'

• autologous=the cells come from the patient not a donor.
• chondrocyte=cartilage cell

MACI stands for 'matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation.