[Treatment of deep cartilage defects in the knee with autologous chondrocyte transplantation: a review of 28 cases].

Purpose Of The Study: The knee has little capacity for spontaneous regeneration of deep cartilage defects. In 1999, the French Society of Arthroscopy initiated a multicentric clinical trial on autologous chondrocyte transplantation using the technique described by Brittberg and Peterson. The protocol of this prospective study was validated by the ethics committee and all patients provided the informed consent for participation.

Autologous chondrocyte implantation. A review of techniques and preliminary results.

The treatment of deep focal bone and cartilage defects in weight-bearing areas of the knee remains challenging. Autologous chondrocyte implantation is a recently introduced alternative to drilling and mosaicplasty and is gaining ground in France under the impetus of favorable results obtained in other countries in highly selected cases. The technique and preliminary results are discussed herein.

[Implantation of autologous chondrocytes for cartilagenous lesions in young patients. A study of 24 cases].

Study Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the treatment of symptomatic knee cartilage defects on young active patients by autologous chondrocyte implantation and to report preliminary results in 24 patients.

Patients And Methods: Since April 1996, 24 selected patients underwent 25 implantations in five military hospitals. There were 19 men and five women (all of them practicing sports); mean age was 27.

The SFA system for assessing articular cartilage lesions at arthroscopy of the knee.

We proposed to establish a system of assessing severity of chondropathy taking into account localization, size, and depth of cartilage lesions. The design of the study was prospective and multicenter. The subjects were 755 patients who had undergone arthroscopy of the knee.