New Frontiers for Cartilage Repair and Protection

Articular cartilage injury is common after athletic injury and remains a difficult treatment conundrum both for the surgeon and athlete. Although recent treatments for damage to articular cartilage have been successful in alleviating symptoms, more durable and complete, long-term articular surface restoration remains the unattained goal. In this article, we look at both new ways to prevent damage to articular surfaces as well as new techniques to recreate biomechanically sound and biochemically true articular surfaces once an athlete injures this surface. This goal should include reproducing hyaline cartilage with a well-integrated and flexible subchondral base and the normal zonal variability in the articular matrix.

A number of nonoperative interventions have shown early promise in mitigating cartilage symptoms and in preclinical studies have shown evidence of chondroprotection. These include the use of glucosamine, chondroitin, and other neutraceuticals, viscosupplementation with hyaluronic acid, platelet-rich plasma, and pulsed electromagnetic fields. Newer surgical techniques, some already in clinical study, and others on the horizon offer opportunities to improve the surgical restoration of the hyaline matrix often disrupted in athletic injury. These include new scaffolds, single-stage cell techniques, the use of mesenchymal stem cells, and gene therapy.

Although many of these treatments are in the preclinical and early clinical study phase, they offer the promise of better options to mitigate the sequelae of athletically induced cartilage.