Symptoms and function in patients with articular cartilage lesions in 1,000 knee arthroscopies

Focal chondral lesions of the knee are commonly occurring. A lot is known about their frequency, size and localisation in arthroscopic series, but less about the symptoms they elicit and little about how the arthroscopic findings and symptoms correlate. The purposes of the present study included to investigate the relationship between articular cartilage lesion factors and patient factors, and to compare the symptoms and function of cartilage lesion patients to those of patients with a deficient ACL.

A prospective registration was conducted of preoperative data including Lysholm knee score and perioperative findings in 1,000 consecutive patients undergoing an arthroscopic procedure of the knee-including microfracture of articular cartilage defects and ACL reconstructions.

Chondral or osteochondral lesions were found in 57 % of the arthroscopies. The mean Lysholm score in this subgroup was 55. The mean Lysholm score was significantly lower in women (50, SD 19) compared to men (59, SD 18, p < 0.001). Among the chondral lesion factors, only kissing (vs. non-kissing) lesions and multiple (vs. single) lesions influenced symptoms and function to a more than negligible degree. Microfracture in one or two articular cartilage defects was performed in 187 patients. The microfracture group had a significant lower mean Lysholm score (54, SD 18) than a group of patients (N = 71) undergoing ACL reconstruction group (67, SD 17, p < 0.001).

The study confirms that articular cartilage lesions are both common and cumbersome. Women seem to have more problems than men, whereas chondral lesion factors-such as localisation and size-seem to influence symptoms and function to a small degree. These aspects should be addressed when designing outcome studies, and should also be of interest to the orthopaedic surgeon-in the day-by-day clinical work. When treating these patients, our prime focus need to be on knee function rather than the cartilage defect as the relationship between the latter and the former is unclear.

Case-control study, Level III.