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Scaffolding-based treatments for ankle lesions are promising, but more research is needed
An increasing number of studies in the literature on using scaffolding as a treatment for cartilage repair are indicative of this technique’s potential as a therapeutic option for treating osteochondral lesions of the talus. However, more research is needed, according to this study.
“Cartilage regeneration history in osteochondral lesions of the talar dome is now 10 years long. Over this time, this surgical treatment [became] less invasive, less expensive and simpler, overcoming all the major drawbacks over time,” Francesca Vannini, MD, PhD, and colleagues wrote in the study. “The introduction of scaffolds dramatically changed the practice, permitting to shift to an arthroscopic two-step procedure and subsequently even opening the wide panorama of the one-step surgeries.”
Although the results from the studies remained promising, Vannini and colleagues said there was a lack of randomized studies using cartilage scaffolding-based treatments for osteochondral lesions of the talus. Of the 19 studies analyzed, there were no studies using randomized data. Fifteen studies used two-step data, while 11 studies were case series and 5 were case reports.
Vannini and colleagues said one technique that looks promising is an open field autologous chondrocyte implantation technique. While the method is currently demanding, newer scaffold designs being tested in animal studies utilize a multi-layered biometric structure that would overcome the technique’s limitations.
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.