Clinical Assessment of Arthroscopic Osteochondral Autograft Transfer (Mosaicplasty) for Cartilage Defects of the Knee

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the functional outcome of arthroscopic treatment of chondral and osteochondral lesions of the knee with arthroscopic osteochondral autograft transfer (Mosaicplasty) and to evaluate the factors affecting the treatment outcome.

In a before and after clinical trial 56 patients with grade 4 full thickness chondral lesion (outer bridge classification) were treated by the arthroscopic mosaicplasty technique over a 4-year period at an hospital in Tehran Iran. The mean time of follow-up was 214 months (16-32 months). The patients were assessed by International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) and Lyshom knee scoring scale (LKSS). The impact of age site of chondral lesion (medial or lateral femoral condyle) extent of the lesion (number of plugs) and associated lesions preoperative active levels tourniquet time and surgery complications were studied. In 3 cases second-look arthroscopy was performed.

The result of 78.6% was excellent and 21.4 good based on IKDC. Preoperative Lysholm score was 67.117.6 and postoperative score increased to 93.26.5 (p=.0004). Clinical outcomes were better significantly in patients with associated articular lesions lateral condyles lesions professional athletes and younger patients also in cases with lower plug numbers and sport injuries (p