Clinical and histological study of patellar chondropathy in adolescents

An arthroscopic and histological investigation of patellar chondropathy in adolescents was performed in 98 knees of 83 patients who were classified into three clinical types of patellofemoral disorder. These were the anterior knee pain syndrome, idiopathic chondropathy, and unstable patella. Histological findings suggested little evidence of progression to high-grade chondropathy in the patients with anterior knee pain syndrome, and this may account for the resolution of clinical symptoms in this group. Even in patients with high-grade lesions in the idiopathic chondropathy and unstable patella groups, histological observations indicated that these lesions could heal either by intrinsic (fibrous metaplasia of chondrocytes and regeneration of matrix) or extrinsic repair. Chondropathy in adolescents may be similar to the early changes of osteoarthritis of the knee. However, chondropathy shows far more potential for repair by the synovium and/or the cartilage itself than does osteoarthritis.