Treatment of glenoid chondral defect using micronized allogeneic cartilage matrix implantation

Focal chondral lesions of the glenohumeral joint, though less common than chondral defects in the knee or ankle, can be a significant source of pain in an active population. For patients in whom nonsurgical management fails, promising results have been reported after arthroscopic microfracture surgery to treat such lesions. However, microfracture leads to growth of fibrocartilage tissue and is biomechanically less durable than native hyaline cartilage. Recently, augmentation of the microfractured defect with micronized allogeneic cartilage and platelet-rich plasma has been described to restore hyaline-like cartilage and potentially protect the subchondral bone from postsurgical fracture biology within the base of the defect. We present a simple arthroscopic technique of implanting dehydrated, micronized allogeneic cartilage scaffold to treat an isolated chondral lesion of the glenoid.