Clinical and radiographic outcomes of chitosan-glycerol phosphate/blood implant are similar with hyaluronic acid-based cell-free scaffold in the treatment of focal osteochondral lesions of the knee joint

ConclusionSingle-stage regenerative cartilage surgery using chitosan-glycerol phosphate/blood implant combined to microfracture for focal osteochondral lesions of the knee revealed similar clinical and radiographic outcomes with hyaluronic acid-based cell-free scaffold at short-term follow-up. However, clinical outcomes of hyaluronan scaffold were less sensitive to defect size than chitosan. With the advantages of no hypertrophic repair tissue formation as well as no need to arthrotomy during surgery, chitosan is an effective choice especially in patients with the lesion size  ≤ 3 cm2.Level of evidenceIII.
Source: Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy - Category: Orthopaedics Source Type: research