AUTOLOGOUS CHONDROCYTE IMPLANTATION AND MICROFRACTURE: NO DIFFERENCE (Orthopedics This Week)
A randomized trial from several Norwegian facilities is indicating that the in vitro cultivation of autologous chondrocytes is not an improvement over microfracture. Researchers enrolled 80 patients with a single symptomatic chronic cartilage defect on the femoral condyle without general osteoarthritis (OA).
Gunnar Knutsen, M.D., Ph.D., a co-author on the study, told OTW, “At 15 years follow-up, we found no significant clinical differences between the autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) and the microfracture groups. We did find, however, that 57% of the surviving patients in the ACI group and 48% of such patients in the microfracture group had radiographic evidence of early osteoarthritis.
“Orthopedic surgeons from four university clinics in Norway planned the study in 1998. We wanted to compare a new tissue engineering technique: ACI with a low cost arthroscopic technique: microfracture. This study was an important part of my Ph.D. on cartilage repair.
“We are still not able to regenerate hyaline articular cartilage in adults, and the frequency of osteoarthritis following cartilage s...
