[Up-date of cartilage repair technique].

There are two major conditions which require cartilage repair, one is partial cartilage defect due to trauma or osteochondritis dissecanse and the other is cartilage degeneration and loss induced by osteoarthritis. In this section, we introduce several surgical techniques which are available in clinical cases. In patient with relatively small traumatic cartilage defect, microfracture technique, autologous osteochondral graft transplantation, or autologous cultured chondrocytes transplantation are performed. In patients with osteoarthritis, which usually larger region is affected than traumatic cartilage defect, cell based technique and osteochondral transplantation are not sufficient to cover the region, therefore abrasion arthroplasty is performed accompanied with osteotomy to correct mechanical property in the joint.