Midterm results of biologic fixation or mosaicplasty and drilling in osteochondritis dissecans

BACKGROUND: Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) primarily affects subchondral bone. Multiple drilling, fixation implant or autogenous osteochondral grafts are reported as treatment options. We present the midterm results of cases in which an OCD lesion was treated by osteochondral autograft transfer and drilling. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between 2002 and 2006, 14 knees with International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS-OCD) type II and III lesions were treated in our clinic using osteochondral autograft transfer and drilling by arthroscopic or open surgery. The average age of our patients was 22.14 years (range 17-29 years) and average followup was of 24.3 months (range 11-40 months). Lesion type was ICRS type II in five patients (35.7%) and ICRS type III in nine patients (64.3%). In cases with ICRS-OCD type II lesions, in situ fixation was applied following circumferential multiple drilling, while mosaicplasty was done following debridement and multiple drilling in cases with ICRS-OCD type III lesion. Mosaicplasty was performed in the lesion area by an average of 2.5 (range 1-3) cylindrical osteochondral autografts. Patients were not allowed to perform loading activities for 3 weeks in the postoperative period; movement was initiated by using CPM device in the early phase; full range of motion was achieved in third week, and full weight bearing was permitted in 6 to 8 weeks RESULTS: While 6 and 8 patients were classified preoperatively as fair and poor, respectively, according to Hughston scale, excellent and good results were obtained postoperatively in 10 and 4 patients, respectively. During the followup, no problems were detected in any of the patients in the regions where osteochondral graft was harvested. CONCLUSION: Biologic fixation or mosaicplasty and drilling as a technique to treatment of the lesion in OCD by osteochondral autograft transfer has resulted in good and excellent clinical outcomes in our patients and it is considered that providing blood flow to subchondral bone by circumferencial drilling leads to an increase in the robustness of biological internal fixation and shortens the duration of recovery.