Does Prior Cartilage Restoration Impact Outcomes Following Knee Arthroplasty?

This study compared patients who failed a cartilage restoration procedure and underwent ipsilateral knee arthroplasty with matched control subjects undergoing knee arthroplasty without prior cartilage restoration. Although patients with a failed cartilage procedure derived benefit from knee arthroplasty, their magnitude of improvement and final outcomes scores were lower than the matched control subjects. In this cohort, the cartilage patients also experienced little to no benefit from cartilage restoration, suggesting that unmeasured shared patient characteristics may play a role. This information can be used to counsel this difficult patient population on expected outcomes following arthroplasty procedures. Further research identifying characteristics of responders to treatment remains critical to refine clinical decision-making for this difficult patient group.