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Case Reports
. 2025 Jan;15(1):193-196.
doi: 10.13107/jocr.2025.v15.i01.5174.

Re-arthroscopic Findings 18 Years After Osteochondral Autologous Transplantation for Cartilage Lesion in the Knee: A Case Report

Takahiro Maeda  1   2 , Yasuaki Nakagawa  1   3 , Shogo Mukai  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Re-arthroscopic Findings 18 Years After Osteochondral Autologous Transplantation for Cartilage Lesion in the Knee: A Case Report

Takahiro Maeda et al. J Orthop Case Rep. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Introduction: Despite the good clinical outcomes of osteochondral autograft transplantation (OAT), reports of re-arthroscopic findings after OAT have been limited to short-term, and there are no reports of findings after long-term follow-up. This is the first report that describes re-arthroscopic findings long-term after OAT.

Case report: A male patient underwent OAT on the lateral femoral condyle (LFC) of the knee and lateral meniscus (LM) repair at the age of 45. Eighty years after the primary surgery, he underwent re-arthroscopy because of cartilage injury on the medial femoral condyle (MFC) and LM tear. The re-arthroscopic findings showed the retained OAT plugs on LFC and severe damage of LM. After OAT on the LFC and meniscectomy of LM was performed, his knee symptoms improved, so the LFC that had undergone OAT 18 years previously was considered to be on a good clinical course.

Conclusion: OAT plugs were retained at the long-term follow-up while the repaired LM was severely damaged. The structural robustness of OAT was thought to be responsible for good long-term clinical outcomes.

Keywords: ICRS grade; Osteoarthritis; arthroscopic findings; osteochondral autograft transplantation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: Nil

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The first surgery included performing osteochondral autologous transplantation for a cartilage defect in the lateral femoral condyle (A and B) and lateral meniscus tear repair © and D).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Magnetic resonance imaging 18 years after the primary surgery. The lateral meniscus completely disappeared (indicated by the arrow in A), whereas the transplanted osteochondral plug in the lateral femoral condyle, including cartilage, still remained with a smooth surface (indicated arrow in B).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Re-arthroscopy 18 years after the primary surgery. The transplanted osteochondral plug in the lateral femoral condyle still remained (a), whereas the lateral meniscus was severely damaged (b).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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