Positive first response from medical community...

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.

Rather than relying on the migration of bone marrow cells into the defect, chondral grafting relies on taking full thickness cores of bone and cartilage from a healthy part of the joint and grafting it into the defect.

This technique is relevant to defects in the cartilage between 1 and 2 centimetres squared.