Aim: A local cartilage defect at the knee is mostly followed by arthritis after a period of time. Up to now there are no options to adequately regenerate hyaline cartilage in vivo. Hence, the present strategies try to create a repair tissue with hyaline-like characteristics or to repair defects by transplanting autologous osteochondral cylinders. The objective of this study was to collect data about the current treatment of local cartilage defects of the knee in Germany.
Method: In a countrywide anonymous survey, 250 German trauma surgery and 220 orthopaedic surgery departments were asked about their diagnostic procedures and their treatment strategies when addressing a local cartilage defect of the knee.
Results: 230 (48.9 %) of the questionnaires were returned and evaluated. We found differences between the two specialities: the orthopaedic departments are more progressive in applying autologous chondrocyte transplantation (ACT) (28.3 % versus 13.6 %) and osteochondral transplantation (OCT) (69.1 % versus 56.3 %). Only 5.2 % of the German surgeons perform periostal grafting for local cartilage defects.
Conclusion: There are still discrepancies about the therapy for local cartilage defects of the knee. Our survey illustrates the present status of cartilage repair strategies in Germany.