This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Mid-term cartilage repair outcomes unaffected by postoperative weight-bearing restrictions
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
When an osteochondral autograft transfer system was used to repair small defects in weight-bearing areas of medial or lateral femoral condyle cartilage in patients who underwent second-look arthroscopy, mid-term cartilage repair outcomes were unaffected by postoperative weight-bearing restrictions, according to study results.
Researchers retrospectively reviewed the charts from 567 arthroscopic osteochondral autograft transfers and identified cases of patients who were non-weight-bearing following the procedure, non-weight-bearing following the procedure with concomitant anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction or weight-bearing-as-tolerated following the procedure. The researchers then stratified patients whose knees underwent second-look arthroscopy into non-weight-bearing and weight-bearing-as-tolerated groups.
During second-look arthroscopy, graft position and manifestation of the repair-adjacent defect were assessed, and cartilage repair was assessed with the use of the International Cartilage Repair Society macroscopic cartilage-repair assessment tool. The researchers then compared postoperative complication rates among the three primary groups.
Among patients in the non-weight-bearing second-look subgroup, the mean grafted area was 0.72 cm2, and for patients in the weight-bearing-as-tolerated subgroup, the mean grafted area was 0.73 cm2.
The researchers found a mean International Cartilage Repair Society score of 11.12 for the non-weight-bearing subgroup at a mean follow-up of 42.7 months, whereas the weight-bearing-as-tolerated subgroup had a score of 11.25 points at 33 months.
Between the two subgroups, no significant differences were found in the duration of follow-up, repair-adjacent defect prevalence or graft position, according to the researchers.
Compared with non-weight-bearing patients, weight-bearing-as-tolerated patients experienced significantly fewer deep vein thrombosis and arthrofibrosis complications.
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts