All-arthroscopic hydrogel-based autologous chondrocyte transplantation in the knee joint: good clinical and MRI outcome after 24 months

ABSTRACT Purpose Aim of this study was to evaluate subjective and objective clinical and MRI-based radiological outcomes after short-term follow-up in patients with focal full-size cartilage lesions of the knee joint treated with all-arthroscopic hydrogel-based autologous chondrocyte transplantation. Methods A retrospective study on patients with isolated focal cartilage defects of the knee joint who were treated with arthroscopically conducted MACT was performed. Clinical scores were assessed at baseline and final follow-up using the Tegner Score, visual analogue scale (VAS), the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) and the five subscales of the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS). MRIs of the treated knee joints were evaluated with the updated MOCART2.0 scoring system at follow-up. Results Twenty-nine consecutive patients were included in the study. Mean time to follow-up was 24.9 ± 1.1 months. Average VAS decreased significantly from 6.5 ± 3.1 preoperatively to 2.3 ± 1.6 at follow-up (p 5cm2) scored ≥ 75 points. Conclusions In this small study, injectable MACT therapy in the knee joint led to favourable clinical and radiological short term results with significant improvements in all clinical scores and MOCART2.0 scores confirming morphologic integrity of the transplanted chondrocytes. Therefore, this minimally invasive procedure represents a promising operative technique for cartilage regeneration, even for large-diameter lesions.