Abstract
Existing treatments for focal articular cartilage defects (FCDs) involve physical training, palliating surgical procedures, and more advanced cartilage surgery. The results from clinical studies are conflicting, and no current gold-standard treatment exists. Furthermore, cartilage surgery has not been adequately compared to non-operative treatment, and the methodological quality of the majority of published studies is low. It is time for a comprehensive and standardized long-time follow-up of these patients, preferably through a register.
This project outlines epidemiological data of cartilage surgery in Norway and the external validity of RCTs. Furthermore, we studied the long-term effect of FCDs and biomarkers of early OA. Resolving these issues may lead to more standardized and less variations in treatment. Finally, we performed a pilot cartilage surgery register.
The results show that cartilage surgery in Norway is common and there are large variations. The external validity in RCTs on cartilage surgery is low. Long-term follow-up is challenged as we are lacking reliable biomarkers. The results from this project support the establishment of a future cartilage surgery register.