Early determinants of long-term clinical outcome after cartilage repair surgery in the knee

Eirik Solheim; Janne Hegna; Eivind Inderhaug

doi:10.1016/j.jor.2018.01.021

Early determinants of long-term clinical outcome after cartilage repair surgery in the knee

J Orthop. 2018 Jan 31;15(1):222-225. doi: 10.1016/j.jor.2018.01.021. eCollection 2018 Mar.

Authors

Eirik Solheim^{1

2

3}, Janne Hegna², Eivind Inderhaug^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopedics, Deaconess University Hospital, Haraldsplass, Bergen, Norway.
² Department of Orthopedics, Aleris Nesttun Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
³ Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.

Abstract

Purpose: To identify early determinants of clinical outcome after knee cartilage repair.

Methods: 205 patients were evaluated before surgery and at median 14-years follow-up.

Results: Baseline factors predicting a good outcome were: single lesion; normal appearing cartilage surrounding the lesion; high baseline Lysholm score; short duration of symptoms; non-involvement of the patella-femoral joint; young age; and small defect. Factors predicting a poor outcome were: multiple lesions; low baseline Lysholm score; degenerative cartilage surrounding the lesion; long symptom duration; meniscal lesion; and large defect.

Conclusions: The choice of surgical method seem to be less important than other patients-specific predictors.

Level of evidence: Case series, Level IV.

Keywords: Arthroscopy; Articular cartilage defects; Knee; Microfracture; Mosaicplasty.