Knee Cartilage Damage - Causes, Symptoms & Procedures

Knee Cartilage is a flexible insulation-like tissue matrix that develops over the bones’ surfaces which converge at the knee joint i.e., the end of the thigh bone, the top of the shin bone, and the back of the kneecap.

Due to the absence of blood vessels, knee cartilage tissues have minimal abilities of self-repair or regenerate if damaged. Hence, in the case of significant cartilage damage or degeneration, the only options are to either synthetically regenerate it via Cell Therapy, or entirely replace it.

Causes:

• Knee cartilage injuries are common in athletes who undergo rigorous physical training and play long-term games that involve brisk physical movements such as football, cricket, basketball, rugby, and so on.
• A heavy direct impact like a ground dive or hitting a ball can cause severe damage to the cartilage.
• Also, quick turning, twisting, and jumping can easily strain the joint and cause the cartilage to get injured or degrade over time.
• In contrast, cartilages also get damage due to lack of exercise and obesity. Such cases are commonly seen in people who have long-term desk jobs.

Symptoms:

• The most commonly known symptoms of damaged cartilage are;
• Joint pain which continues even at rest
• Stiffness or lack of strength in the leg
• Swelling around the knee area
• Clicking and grinding sensations while moving the knee
• Inflammation, tenderness, soreness, and pain in the knee joint

Treatments:

Knee Cartilage Repair Treatment:

• If the cartilage has minor damages like small loose pieces or tiny particle fragments of cartilage, then the surgeon can simply remove those irritants and sculpt the cartilage back to its smooth shape.
• This reshaping of the cartilage is known as ‘Chondroplasty.’
• It is usually performed along with another process called ‘knee debridement’ where, after removing the irritant and tattered parts of the cartilage, the surgeon uses a saline solution to lavage and treat it arthroscopically.

Knee Cartilage Regeneration Treatments:

As the damaged cartilage cannot self-regenerate, the surgeon operates over the bone surface to bring in other fluids which can encourage cartilage regeneration;

Microfracture (marrow stimulation):

• Here, the surgeon makes tiny holes over the bone surface beneath the cartilage . This causes the bone marrow to be released out and over the cartilage. This bone marrow treatment stimulates the production of new cartilage tissues and regenerates the new cartilage matrix.

Stem Cell and PRP Therapy:

• Stem cells generated via cell culture and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) can also be used in hopes of efficient cartilage cell regeneration. Both stem cells and PRPs are used in the body’s natural healing process and the restoration of damaged tissue.

Knee Cartilage Replacement:

In case the cartilage is severely damaged beyond repair, it has to be replaced. This is usually done in three different ways;

Osteochondral autograft transplantation:

• A small plug of healthy cartilage part along with a tiny bit of its underlying bone from the patient’s joints (an autograft) is used to replace a relatively small damaged cartilage part.
• If multiple plugs of healthy cartilages are used, then the surgery is termed as ‘mosaicplasty’ and is usually performed arthroscopically.

Osteochondral allograft transplantation:

• When the damaged cartilage area is too large to be replaced with smaller autografts, healthy cartilage plugs are taken from a donor’s / cadaver joints and replaced with the damaged cartilage in the patient’s joint.
• This is an open incision type of surgery or done arthroscopically

Autologous chondrocyte implantation:

• Firstly, a small portion of healthy cartilage from the patient’s joint is extracted and stored for multiplication in a cell culture environment.
• In the next three to six weeks, when enough cartilage cells have been produced, they are used for implanting and replacing the damaged cartilage entirely via an open incision surgery.
• This technique is used when there are multiple damaged cartilages to be repaired.

If you’re an athlete suffering from a cartilage injury and searching for sports injury specialists in Mumbai, you should definitely contact or pay a visit to Dr Pranjal Kodkadi. He is one of the most experienced specialists in sports injury, joint preservation surgery, and arthroscopy in Mumbai.