articular cartilage repair

Articular cartilage repair includes a number of surgical procedures whose objective is to improve or restore damaged joint cartilage surfaces. This is an area of knee surgery where the effectiveness of techniques is still being established, but it does offer to patients with joint surface damage the possibility of delaying knee replacement or preventing it altogether.

Hambly K and Griva K. IKDC or KOOS?

The medical literature is largely accessible to patients. The language is hard to read, the articles are stored in libraries and it is also hard for readers to put the information into the context of the time in which is was published. We try to overcome these issues by interpreting some of the literature for our readers and also trying to put it into context. Key articles on exercise for arthritis, in date order of publication, that we have reviewed/interpreted for you include -

The following are a list of surgeons that I know to have a special interest in cartilage repair -

Dr (Mr) Vladimir Bobic - Chester, UK

Dr (Mr) Tim Briggs - Watford, UK

Understanding the cartilage repair experience from the patients' perspective. by Karen Hambly BSc MCSP (Sports Scientist/Physiotherapist)

See Karen's Own Site

Articular cartilage repair includes a number of surgical procedures whose objective is to improve or restore damaged joint cartilage surfaces.

This is an area of knee surgery where the effectiveness of techniques is still being established, but it does offer to patients with joint surface damage the possibility of delaying knee replacement or preventing it altogether.

If you read through the reference given in the previous chapter, you will know by now that there are a number of possible surgical techniques that may benefit someone with joint cartilage damage in the knee. To help surgeons decide which procedure to do, a number of flowcharts (or 'algorithms') have been developed. The surgeon can estimate the depth of the damage and the width of the damaged area, and ask the patient questions about their lifestyle and age. Then by referring to the flowchart, the surgeon will have a fairly good idea of what surgery is likely to benefit the patient.

I am constantly amazed by some of the experiences that people tell me they go through when they go to see their physio after they have had articular cartilage repair. A couple of classics that I come across way too frequently are -

When I told my physio that I had ACI surgery they said "so you've had your ligament repaired! or 

When I went to the physio they had never heard of microfracture/OATS/Mosaicplasty/ACI (delete as appropriate!) and they had no details of my operation from the surgeon.