Symptoms | Cartilage damage in the knee

Symptoms

If these measures do not suffice to significantly improve the symptoms, there are several newer methods for dealing with cartilage damage in the knee: Especially in younger patients, it is advisable to transplant healthy cartilage tissue into the knee. There are also completely new drugs on the market that inhibit very specifically certain inflammatory triggers that are responsible for the damage to the knee joint cartilage. Although these are currently still being tested and are very expensive, they promise great success.

Last but not least, it should be mentioned that cartilage cultivation is currently being researched. It is now possible to cultivate cartilage cells from blood stem cells in the laboratory and such cartilage cultures and subsequent transplants are already being carried out successfully in some areas of Germany. Depending on the size, localization and depth of the cartilage damage as well as on the symptoms of the affected patient, various surgical therapies are performed.

The aim of these therapies is to use the body’s self-healing tendency to achieve the best possible stabilization of the cartilage tissue and to allow the patient to be free of symptoms. However, healing and regeneration of the original cartilage tissue is not possible. Instead, replacement substances for the lost cartilage can be used in various ways.

The self-healing rate is highest in young people who have suffered a cartilage injury due to a traumatic event. In this case, no surgery is required in addition to drug-based pain therapy and exercise training. With the procedure known as microfracturing, a hole can be drilled into the bone below the cartilage in the case of small cartilage defects.

This causes bleeding into the cartilage and the accumulation of stem cells and graft factors, which, although they cannot restore the cartilage and thus do not achieve complete healing, these cells stimulate the formation of fibrous cartilage and scar tissue at the defective site, which in the best case leads to an alleviation of the patient’s symptoms. In addition to this surgical technique, autologous cartilage (OATS) or only cartilage cells can be transplanted into the knee joint (ACT) to replace the defective cartilage. It is also possible to scrape and smooth the surface of minor lesions, but this reduces the thickness of the entire cartilage.