Treatment of human cartilage defects by means of Nd:YAG Laser Therapy

Articular cartilage lesions represent a challenging problem for orthopaedic surgeons. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a new pulsed Nd:YAG High Intensity Laser Therapy on the regeneration of cartilage tissue in patients with traumatic lesions. Clinical, histological and immunohistochemical evaluations were performed. Ten patients affected by chondral lesions scheduled for ACI procedure, were enrolled into the study. During the chondrocyte expansion for ACI procedure, cartilage from five patients was treated by Nd:YAG High Intensity Laser Therapy (HILT group). No laser treatment was performed in the remaining patients, who were used as controls. Cartilage repair was assessed by clinicians using two different scores: Cartilage Repair Assessment (CRA) and Overall Repair Assessment (ORA). Cartilage biopsy specimens were harvested to perform histological and immunohistochemical analyses at T0 (before laser treatment) and T1 (at the end of the treatment). A significant decrease in cartilage depth was noticed in the HILT group at T1. Histological and immunohistochemical evaluations showed some regenerative processes in cartilaginous tissue in terms of high amount of proteoglycans, integration with adjacent articular cartilage and good cellular arrangement in the HILT group. By contrast, a not well organized cartilaginous tissue with various fibrous features in the control group at T0 and T1 was observed. In conclusion, the use of this new pulsed Nd:YAG HILT resulted promising in the treatment of moderate cartilage lesions markedly in the young patients.