Cartilage Injury of the Knee: Current Controversies in 2022 (AANA22)-Cost Effectiveness of Cartilage Procedures: Is There a Winner???

Cost Effectiveness of Cartilage Procedures: Is There a Winner???

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Video Summary

The presentation reviewed cost-effectiveness of cartilage repair treatments in the U.S., emphasizing measures like quality adjusted life years and minimally clinically important differences. Microfracture is most cost-effective for lesions under 3 cm, while osteochondral autograft transplantation (OAT) may better support return to sport. Advanced scaffolds and small-hole marrow stimulation techniques improve outcomes at moderate additional costs. Studies show similar functional results across procedures, but costs vary widely ($24K microfracture to $75K allografts). Patellar lesions may benefit more from ACI (Macy). Overall, current cartilage repair techniques are cost-effective within the $50,000/QALY threshold, but long-term data and new technologies require further study.

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Jason Koh, M.D., M.B.A.

Keywords

cartilage repair

cost-effectiveness

microfracture

osteochondral autograft transplantation

quality adjusted life years