Does extracorporeal shock wave therapy enhance healing of osteochondritis dissecans of the rabbit knee?: a pilot study.

Background: Severe osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) in children and adolescents often necessitates surgical interventions (ie, drilling, excision, or débridement). Since extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) enhances healing of long-bone nonunion fractures, we speculated ESWT would reactivate the healing process in OCD lesions.

Questions/purposes: We asked whether ESWT would enhance articular cartilage quality, bone and cartilage density, and histopathology of osteochondral lesions compared to nontreated controls in an OCD rabbit model.