Mosaicplasty

Written by Dr Sheila Strover on March 14, 2025

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.

Transferring viable cartilage plugs means that the defect now has a new cartilage covering, although the gaps may fill with less robust fibrocartilage.

Illustration of the front of the knee, showing the cartilage plugs of a recent mosaicplasty.

How do surgeons 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.

Back to top

Outcomes of mosaicplasty in the knee

Using the modified Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) knee scoring system, 91% of the patients achieved a good or excellent result.

L Hangody et al

Back to top

A-Z Keywords -

Flowchart -

Dr Sheila Strover - 2017 - Arthritis flowchart

e Books -

Dr Sheila Strover - Knee arthritis interventions when you are too young for a total knee replacement