We would like to introduce you our most recent publication from Zantop et al. published in The Arthroscopy 2009.

The paper reports on the one year clinical follow-up after arthroscopic implantation of chondrotissue^® to cover large chondral defects during microfracture.

In this case report a 35 year old male patient with a clear defined cartilage defect of 4cm² at the lateral femoral condyle and a 54 year old woman with a degenerative cartilage defect of 3cm² at the medial femoral condyle were treated with microfracture in combination with chondrotissue^® matrix in a standard arthroscopy procedure. This matrix is a new cell-free cover for microfracture consisting of a resorbable polymer felt and hyaluronan.

12 months postoperatively both patients were free of pain and discomfort. Magnetic resonance imaging showed that volume filling of the defect by cartilaginous repair tissue was graded as excellent on the basis of the percentage of the defect that was filled. MRI follow-up data confirmed good filling of the defect with hyperintense repair tissue, smooth peripheral integration and a successful and stable fixation of chondrotissue^® with Smart Nails^® (fig.1A/B).

Fig. 1: cartilage repair of the joints 12 months  postoperatively, treated traumatic defect (A) and treated degenerative defect (B)

There is evidence that the arthroscopic implantation of condrotissue^® improves cartilage repair after microfracture. We conclude that the current introduced technique may be successful in addressing larger cartilage defects in a single step arthroscopic approach.