Osteochondral grafting for cartilage defects in the patellar grooves of bilateral knee joints.

Abstract

Autogenous osteochondral grafts have become popular recently for use in small, isolated, contained articular cartilage defects. We treated a 35-year-old man who had cartilage defects, which were the same shape and probably the result of overuse, in the patellar grooves of both knee joints. The left side was 30 x 25 mm, and the right side was 17 x 17 mm in his right patellar groove, and 15 x 7 mm in his right medial femoral condyle. Therefore, we performed multiple osteochondral grafting of the bilateral lesions. Thirty-two months after his right knee operation (37 months after his left one), he had no pain or symptoms in his left knee and occasional mild pain and catching in his right knee. At second-look arthroscopy, the joint surface of the articular cartilage in the bilateral patellar groove was almost completely smooth. However, the whole of the weight-bearing area around the grafted plugs in the medial femoral condyle showed cartilage degeneration. Approximately 3 years after implantation of osteochondral grafts into similarly shaped cartilage lesions in the bilateral patellar grooves, the operative results were good. However, careful follow up is needed.