Background: Chondral and osteochondral injuries of the knee joint are undervalued in subjects undergoing orthopedic surgery. Chondral lesions are difficult to diagnose as they do not present specific clinical signs. The objective of the study was to establish the prevalence of cartilage injuries in patients undergoing arthroscopy of the knee for knee pain or instability. Materials and methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 355 consecutive knee arthroscopies. Chondral lesions were found in 247 (69.6%) cases. Regarding their location, chondral lesions were more likely to be located on the medial femoral condyle (53.8%), while lesions on the lateral femoral condyle alone (0.8%) were the least frequent ones. Chondral injuries were frequently found with associated articular findings such as meniscal lesions (56.68%) and anterior cruciate ligament tears (2.84%) or both menisci and anterior cruciate ligament tear (15.38%). The ICRS grade II cartilage lesions were most frequently diagnosed (56.3%) while grade IV was the least frequent type (6.9%). Conclusions: Chondral damage is frequently diagnosed during knee arthroscopy, present in more than 50% of the arthroscopies performed for various indications, and an important part of cartilage injuries were linked with other intraarticular findings, such as anterior cruciate ligament tear and medial meniscus tear.

Currently, microfracturing is the most commonly used cartilage repair procedure in cartilage defects. Our aim was to study the mechanism of in vivo cartilage repair in case of full-thickness articular cartilage damage of the knee using a three-dimensional matrix implanted without any preseeded cells in the defect. We also investigated whether platelet-rich plasma application after microfracture procedure of the knee is associated with improved outcome compared with traditional microfracture treatment alone in a rabbit model. Histological examination of the chondral defects, revealed the largest amount of new tissue with hyaline-like cartilage features in Hyalofast group. At 12 weeks from implantation of the Hyalofast scaffold demonstrated complete filling of the defect with hyaline cartilage in admixture with the scaffold and bone metaplasia in the deepest areas. In the PRP group, complete filling of the defect with an admixture of fibrous and hyaline-like cartilage tissue appeared with a discreet tendency of endochondral ossification. We confirmed the superiority of the autologous matrix-induced chondrogenesis compared to microfracture and PRP or microfracture alone in case of full-thickness articular cartilage damage of the knee.

Osteoplasty, is a procedure mostly applied in complicated bone fractures. Nowadays this method is widely used in primary fracture treatment while the native bone graft is progressively replaced with various synthetic bone substitutes. From the numerous bone grafts we�d like to mention a representative of ceramics, the S53P4 bioactive glass. (BonAlive�). The aim of this study was to investigate the healing process of different fracture types generated on rabbit femurs. During this experiment we used seven common European rabbits. We separated these animals into two groups; in the first group we surgically generated a total fracture in the middle 1/3 of the femur, while in the second group, we produced only a bone defect on the femur. The osteoplasty was carried out with bioactive glass and autologous bone grafts. The radiographic follow-up was immediate after the operation and after 3, 6 and 7 weeks. The animals were euthanized after 19, 20 and 21 weeks, for histomorphometric examination of the femur. It was also studied the ionic release from the used bioactive glass at physiological pH and the etching of the glass was studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy.

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Arthroplasty is used when there is irreversible damage to the articular cartilage of the knee. It involves implanting a bicompartimental (femoral and tibial components) or a tricompartimental (femoral, tibial and patellar components) prosthesis. It is a very invasive and costly operation, so our objective was to evaluate the necessity of the patellar component. Material and methods: During our study we've included 39 patients: in 27 cases we used tricompartimental prosthesis, while the other 12 received only the bicompartimental components. Patients were evaluated preoperatively and postoperatively using the International Knee Documentation Comitee score. We've also compared our results with the results of other published authors. Results: We've found that there is little to no difference between the two groups regarding mobility and complication, however patients with bicompartimentalarthroplasty complained of less pain. Conclusion: We've found that bicompartimentalarthroplasty -being a less invasive procedure -is better not only in terms of pain management, but there is also less hemorrhaging, shorter intraoperative time is considered, revision is easier and also has financially advantages, both for the patient and for the medical facility.