Cartilage Biology
A 28-year-old male sustained an ACL rupture during football. Arthroscopy reveals a 2.5cm² full-thickness chondral defect on the medial femoral condyle down to subchondral bone. He asks why cartilage injuries don't heal like bone fractures, and what treatment options exist. You explain that articular cartilage lacks blood supply, limiting intrinsic healing capacity. Full-thickness defects that penetrate subchondral bone can form repair tissue, but it's fibrocartilage (inferior to native hyaline cartilage) unless more sophisticated techniques like autologous chondrocyte implantation are used. Regarding cartilage healing and repair:
Mark each as TRUE or FALSE
Articular cartilage is avascular, aneural, and alymphatic tissue with low metabolic activity, relyin...
Partial-thickness chondral defects (injuries not penetrating the tidemark into subchondral bone) hav...
Microfracture is a marrow stimulation technique that creates holes in subchondral bone to access bon...
Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) and matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation (MA...
Osteochondral autograft transfer (OATS/mosaicplasty) transplants cylindrical plugs of native hyaline...
Answer the questions to see explanations
Click T (True) or F (False) for each option