Autologous Chondrocyte Sheet Transplantation For Cartilage Lesions Of Knee Joint:a Fellow-up Analysis

Objective:To evaluate the safety and efficacy of Autologous chondrocytessheet transplantation(ACST) for patients suffering from cartilage lesions of knee in afollow-up study for6-18monthes after operation. Methods: ACST operation wasperformed in a total of5patients(5knees) from2012june to2013october.，with anaverage age of26.6years and average defect size of1.5cm2（1.0-4.0cm2）.Examination and diagnosis of knee joint cartilage defects with knee arthroscope. Thenharvesting cartilage tissue which obtained from autologous non-weight bearing regionfor proliferation in vitro,made of chondrocytes sheet. The cartilage cell sheet trimmedto match the shape and size of the articular cartilage defect, covering the defect andfixed with the recombinant human fibrin glue. Performed specific rehabilitationprogram after operation. Lysholm score and VAS scorewere used to evaluate clinicoutcome in postoperative1,3,6,12,18months respectively. MRI examination wereperformed in postoperative6months,12months,18months, and then evaluate theMOCART score. Results:After operation Lysholm score and VAS scores improveobviously compared with preoperative.6months after operation, MRI exhibited thatnew generated cartilage almost completely filled defect regions, present that repairsignal of cartilage, edema signal intensity of subchondral bone gradually disappear.12months after operation, cartilage repair present smooth gradually, and mixed togetherwith surrounding tissue.edema signal intensity of subchondral bone disappear totally. 18months after operration, MR demonstrated that cartilage implanted totally mixwith normal tissue, cartilage surface smooth and no effusion. There were nopostoperation complications in5patients and no adverse events related with ACST.Conclusions: Our clinical results of18fellow-up study demonstrated that ACSTtechnique was a safety, effective procedure for cartilage lesions in knee joint. Itprovide a new treatment option for avoid to severe complications such as cartilageregenerasion and joint dysfunction caused by cartilage lesions.