Reconstruction of Large Osteochondral Lesions in the Knee: Focus on Fixation Techniques

Large (>3 cm²), focal osteochondral lesions (OCL) may result in poor functional outcomes and early secondary osteoarthritis of the knee. The surgical management of these OCL remains challenging. The treatment strategy must be tailored to various aspects, including lesion-specific (e.g., size, location, chronicity), joint-specific (e.g., instability, limb alignment, meniscal status), and patient-specific factors (e.g., age, activity level, comorbidities). Simple chondroplasty and bone marrow stimulation (BMS) techniques should be reserved for smaller lesions, as they only realize midterm clinical benefits, related to inferior wear characteristics of the induced fibrocartilage (type I collagen). Therefore, much attention has been focused on surgical restoration with hyaline cartilage (type II collagen), based on chondrocyte transplantation and matrix-assisted autologous chondrocyte implantation (MACI). Limited graft availability, staged procedures (MACI), and high treatment costs are limitations of these techniques. However, acute traumatic OCL of the femoral condyles and patellofemoral joint may also be suitable for preservation by surgical fixation. Early detection of the fragment facilitates primary repair with internal fixation. The surgical repair of the articular surface may offer promising clinical and cost-effective benefits as a first-line therapy but remains under-investigated and potentially under-utilized. As a unique characteristic, the fixation technique allows the anatomic restoration of the hyaline articular surface with native cartilage and the repair of the subchondral bone. In this manuscript, we present a case series of large OCL around the knee that were preserved by surgical fixation. Furthermore, various implants and techniques reported for this procedure are reviewed.