This book describes Articulate Cartilage Injuries, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases
Articular Cartilage Injury is a frequent disorder of the knee or hip or ankle joint caused by injury of the surface of the cartilage covering of the knee or hip or ankle.
It can also happen from wear and tear through repeated friction of the cartilage leading to chronic wear and tear or direct trauma.
This term is utilized to describe injury to a type of cartilage in the knee or other joints.
Cartilage generally is a tissue that is devised to absorb loads and has an almost gelatinous consistency.
There are 2 types of cartilage that often get injured.
1. The surface of the ends of the bones that functions as a gliding surface and shock absorber during activities of daily living is made up of cartilage.
This cartilage is termed articular cartilage, a tough, elastic material that permits the knee joint (or hip joint) to move smoothly.
The articular cartilage works to allow frictionless movement of the bone against another and acts also as a shock absorber during weight bearing activities.
2. Another type of cartilage in the knee joint functions as an extra shock absorber and helps to stabilize the knee joint during movement.
This cartilage is termed meniscus cartilage.
The function of both types of cartilage is to supply low amounts of friction within the joint and providing shock absorption during weight bearing activities.
These activities are walking or jogging, climbing stairs, and work or sports related activities.
After a knee or hip injury, one or both of these types of cartilage can be damaged.
Causes:
This disorder happens most often in young adults and can be produced by injury, overuse, parts out of alignment, or muscle weakness.
Instead of gliding smoothly across the lower end of the thigh bone, the knee cap scrapes against it, thus roughening the cartilage underneath the knee cap
Generally, the cartilage can tear just from wear and tear.
This is normally the start of osteoarthritis and is because of mechanical degeneration.
Another cause for a cartilage tear can be an acute traumatic episode such as a fall, a sudden twist or a direct hit.
In children and adolescents, a disorder called osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) can induce cartilage to die.
This can be the cause for small or large cartilage defects.
Obesity produces more weight bearing effect on the articular cartilage of the joints
Symptoms:
1. Pain and swelling of the joint (knee or hip)
2. Locking or catching
3. Stiffness and decrease range of motion
Diagnosis:
A patient's description of symptoms and a follow-up X-ray or MRI normally help the doctor make a diagnosis.
Treatment
A difficult problem for orthopedic surgeons is the treatment of injured joint surface cartilage in the young and active patient.
Conservative treatment is rest, elevation and ice.
Conventional treatments have directed on stimulating the bone at the base of a full thickness cartilage defect by drilling, burring, or micro-fracturing with a special pick.
These treatments cause bleeding and healing with fibro-cartilage or scar cartilage which is not as strong as normal hyaline cartilage.
Often it becomes necessary to do an arthroscopy to directly look at the articular cartilage injury.
The orthopedic surgeon will be able to evaluate the true extent of cartilage injury.
Osteochondral graft transfer is when plugs of cartilage together with the bone base are taken from a less important part of the knee and transplanted to cover the defect
is when cartilage...