Do you think ACI will ever displace chondroplasty as the procedure of choice for articular cartilage repair?
Dr. Zaslav: I think chondroplasty will remain the treatment of choice for small lesions because over fifty percent of patients experience good results with the procedure and it’s a small arthroscopic surgery. However, the problem with chondroplasty and other procedures similar to it is that they do not form hyaline-like cartilage, which is the durable cartilage that is naturally in your joint. Instead, they form fibrous cartilage. Therefore, the patient will feel better temporarily because the fibrous cartilage is filling the defect, but this cartilage eventually wears out because it doesn’t have the ability to bear the load of the joint. Chondroplasty is consistently successful for small lesions because usually there is enough hyaline cartilage around the defect to support the majority of the load and the new fibrous cartilage smoothes out the defect without having to bear a heavy load. The reason that chondroplasty fails is that often the lesion is too big and within two years, the f
