Successful Treatment of Femoral Chondral Lesions with a Novel Customized Metal Implant at Midterm Follow-Up

Abstract

Background: Full-depth cartilage lesions do not heal spontaneously and may progress to osteoarthritis (OA). Treatment for these lesions is warranted when symptomatic. At younger age, biological treatment remains the gold standard, but treatment in the middle-aged patient remains a clinical challenge and focal metal implants have been proposed. We aim to present the subjective outcome at 2 years and the risk of reoperation for any reason at midterm after surgery with a novel customized implant for focal femoral chondral lesions in the knee.

Methods: In a prospective cohort study, 30 patients were included between January 2013 and December 2017 at 9 different clinics in Sweden. The primary outcome was subjective outcome measurements (Visual Analogue Scale [VAS], EuroQoL [EQ5D], Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score [KOOS]) at a minimum of 2 years. The secondary outcome was reoperations for any reason during the follow-up period until December 2019 (mean of 55 months) studied retrospectively by analyzing medical records.

Results: The VAS, EQ5D, and all the KOOS subscales showed significant improvements from preoperatively to the 2-year follow-up. The VAS showed the greatest improvement at the early (3 months) postoperative stage (P < 0.001). Five (7%) patients underwent reoperations and one of these was revised to hemiarthroplasty due to OA progression. No implant loosening was detected in any of the cases.

Conclusions: This customized resurfacing metal implant showed good safety and patient satisfaction. The risk of OA progression and implant loosening is low. Subjective function and pain improved significantly.

Keywords: articular cartilage; clinical trial; general; joint involved; knee; outcome measures; procedures; resurfacing; tissue.

Figure 1.

Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). VAS at preoperative, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. VAS improved at 3 months and maintained significantly improved in comparison with preoperative over 24 months (3 months P = <0.001, 6 months P = 0.006, 12 months P = <0.001, 24 months P = <0.001).

Figure 2.

EuroQoL (EQ5D) Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) at preoperative, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. The improvement was significant only from preoperative to 24 months (65-81, P = 0.006).