The Treatment of Focal Articular Cartilage Lesions of the Knee: Future Trends and Technologies

Abstract

Summary

Future trends in the treatment of articular cartilage defects will focus upon improved understanding of chondrocyte biology, sophisticated and early diagnosis of articular cartilage injury, and functional tissue engineering. Chondrocyte resuscitation following mechanical injury may assist in preventing proteoglycan loss leading to structural breakdown. Reconstruction with tissue engineering technology will add further options and techniques for larger symptomatic defects. These new technologies must be capable of generating articular cartilage that is both histomorphologically and biomechanically similar to normal articular cartilage. New imaging methods permitting nondestructive assessment of the articular cartilage micro-architecture and metabolic viability will assist in earlier diagnosis of injured articular cartilage. These new technologies can then be used for controlled and randomized follow-up evaluations of cartilage treatment modalities.