APEX Knee Navigating Pearls and Pitfalls-Smaller Lesion Debate: MFX vs Autograft Transfer 1 (Caldwell)

Smaller Lesion Debate: MFX vs Autograft Transfer 1 (Caldwell)

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Paul Caldwell from Tucker Orthopedics discusses treatment options for small cartilage lesions in the knee, focusing on microfracture versus osteochondral autograft transplantation (OATS). Small cartilage lesions affect many patients undergoing knee arthroscopy and athletes. Microfracture is a simpler, low-cost procedure that promotes fibrocartilage repair but has durability limitations. OATS involves transplanting healthy cartilage, offering hyaline cartilage restoration and better athletic outcomes but is more complex and limited by available donor tissue. Surgical trends and literature show OATS provides superior function, higher return-to-sport rates, and longer-lasting results; thus, Caldwell favors OATS over microfracture for these lesions.

Asset Caption

Dr. Paul Caldwell

Keywords

small cartilage lesions

knee arthroscopy

microfracture

osteochondral autograft transplantation

OATS