Indentation stiffness of repair tissue after autologous chondrocyte transplantation.

• Our main hypothesis was that indentation stiffness of the repair tissue approaches the values of adjacent cartilage 1 year after autologous chondrocyte transplantation. We also wanted to investigate the differences between osteochondritic lesions and full-thickness lesions. Thirty patients with cartilage lesions were operated on with autologous chondrocyte transplantation. The repair was evaluated arthroscopically, indentation stiffness was measured, and clinical evaluations were done. The stiffness of the repair tissue improved to 62% (mean 2.04 +/- 0.83 N, mean +/- SD) of adjacent cartilage (3.58 +/- 1.04 N). Fifty-three percent of the patients graded their knee as excellent or good and 47% of the patients graded their knee as fair at the followup. In six patients the normalized stiffness was at least 80%, suggesting hyaline-like repair. The indentation stiffness of the osteochondritis dissecans lesion repairs (1.45 +/- 0.46 N; n = 7) was less than that of the nonosteochondritis dissecans lesion repair sites (2.37 +/- 0.72 N; n = 19). Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the cartilage (dGEMRIC) during followup of four patients suggested proteoglycan replenishment, although all grafts showed low indentation values. Low stiffness values may indicate incomplete maturation or predominantly fibrous repair. The indentation analysis showed that the repair tissue stiffness could, in some cases, reach the same level as the adjacent cartilage, but there was a large variation among the grafts.

Nyckelord

Adolescent

Adult

Arthroscopy

methods

Cartilage Diseases

pathology

surgery

Cartilage

Articular

injuries

pathology

Cell Transplantation

adverse effects

methods

Chondrocytes

transplantation

Cohort Studies

Female

Follow-Up Studies

Graft Rejection

Graft Survival

Humans

Injury Severity Score

Knee Injuries

diagnosis

therapy

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Male

Middle Aged

Osteochondritis Dissecans

diagnosis

Probability

Range of Motion

Articular

physiology

Recovery of Function

Retrospective Studies

Risk Assessment

Statistics

Nonparametric

Transplantation

Autologous

Treatment Outcome

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)