Early postoperative adherence of matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation for the treatment of full-thickness cartilage defects of the femoral condyle.

Matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation (MACI) is a tissue-engineering technique for the treatment of full-thickness articular cartilage defects and requires the use of a three-dimensional collagen type I-III membrane seeded with cultured autologous chondrocytes. The cell-scaffold construct is implanted in the debrided cartilage defect and fixed only with fibrin glue, with no periosteal cover or further surgical fixation. In a clinical pilot study, the MACI technique was used for the treatment of full-thickness, weight-bearing chondral defects of the femoral condyle in 16 patients.

Definition of pertinent parameters for the evaluation of articular cartilage repair tissue with high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging.

To evaluate articular cartilage repair tissue after biological cartilage repair, we propose a new technique of non-invasive, high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and define a new classification system. For the definition of pertinent variables the repair tissue of 45 patients treated with three different techniques for cartilage repair (microfracture, autologous osteochondral transplantation, and autologous chondrocyte transplantation) was analyzed 6 and 12 months after the procedure. High-resolution imaging was obtained with a surface phased array coil placed over the knee compartment of interest and adapted sequences were used on a 1 T MRI scanner.