Long-term Results after Microfracture Treatment of Full-thickness Knee Chondral Lesions in Athletes

Platelet-Rich Plasma in the Treatment of Cartilage Defects and Early Osteoarthritis of the Knee

“…Although cartilage shaving has been proved ineffective in patients with OA (McKinley et al 1999;Zhang et al 2008), improvement in this group after PRP injections was significant from pretreatment to 6-and 12-month follow-up. Furthermore, microfracture has been reported to stimulate production of hyaline-like tissue with variable properties and durability compared to normal cartilage, decreasing in some cases pain and disability; however, recent studies demonstrated that these techniques produce fibrocartilaginous tissue, which degenerates with time (Minas et al 2009;Gobbi et al 2014a). Regardless of the reason for previous surgery failure, all patients showed significant improvement at 6-12 months.…”

Knee cartilage defect: marrow stimulating techniques

“…Gobi et al found similar results in a mean 15-year follow-up study of defects that were an average of 4 cm 2 in athletes with mean age of 31. Lyshom score showed initial improvement from baseline but declined at 5 and 15 years, although still better than baseline score [19].…”

Articular cartilage solutions for the knee: present challenges and future direction

“…With regard to age, patients younger than 35–40 years had superior outcomes compared with older patients 38 39. In a long-term study of athletes who had microfracture, Gobbi et al 46 reported that clinical outcomes were best in patients aged under 30 years with lesions <4 cm 2 . In the same study, outcomes improved at 2 years but functional deterioration was noted at 5 years follow-up with an increased incidence of osteoarthritis.…”