Cartilage Regeneration Using Autologous Cartilage Paste Combined With PRP Technology On Human Knee

Purpose: To establish a method for articular cartilage regeneration of the knee using autologous cartilage paste implantation combined with PRP and observe its clinical effect.Methods: From september 2017 to september 2018,a total of 20 patients with articular cartilage defect of knee joints(including 14 females and 6 males,aged 34-56 years)were enrolled in the study.The symptoms of knee joint pain lasted from 8 to 14 months before consultation.All cases of cartilage defects were confirmed by MRI and arthroscopy.The patients were randomly divided into two groups(group A and group B).Group A was treated only by arthroscope microfracture(MF),while Group B received autologous cartilage paste implantation combined with platelet-rich plasma technology.Scientific rehabilitation exercises were recommended after the treatment.Patients were followed up 3—12months post-operatively for efficacy and safety evaluation using VAS,Lysholm,IKDC knee scores and MRI.Results: There were no significant differences in sex,age,body mass index(BMI),pain and function scores of knee,duration of symptoms and area of cartilage defect between the two groups before operation.With the prolongation of follow-up time,the improvement of symptoms and functions of all patients became more and more obvious.In particular,the improvement of IKDC score in group B was obviously better than that in group A(P < 0.05).From the 12 th month,the VAS pain score of group B was significantly lower than that of group A(P < 0.05).For Lysholm index,both of the two groups were improved than preoperation,but the difference between the two groups was not significant(P > 0.05).The knee joint MRI reexamination showed that the repair tissue in group B was more similiar to the surrounding natural hyaline cartilage in image morphology.There were no serious adverse events related to both treatments during the study.Conclusions: Autologous cartilage paste implantation combined with PRP for the treatment of cartilage defect of knee joint can achieve better clinical effect in short term than traditional micro-fracture operation,which provides a new therapeutic strategy for the clinical treatment of cartilage regeneration.