Cartilage Injuries Specialist

What is cartilage?

Cartilage is a type of connective tissue in your body that’s softer than bone but firmer than muscles or fat. It provides cushioning between bones within a joint and allows your joints to move smoothly. Although it’s a tough material, you can damage your cartilage if you injure a joint. 

Cartilage isn’t only between your joints. Certain parts of your body, like your ears, are structured with cartilage instead of bone. Some bones start as cartilage when you’re a child and harden as you grow up. No matter where it is in your body or what function it serves, all cartilage is prone to injuries.

What are cartilage injuries?

Cartilage injuries are common, especially in the knee, elbow, hip, ankle, and other joints. The cartilage can become torn or dislodged, which leads to a number of distinct symptoms such as:

• Inflammation
• Pain
• Joint stiffness
• Joint locking
• Joint instability
• Range-of-motion limitation

Some cartilage injuries happen very suddenly, like when you’re playing sports or you trip and fall. Others happen gradually over time, as with osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is wear and tear on the cartilage in joints, resulting in the cartilage wearing down. Eventually, the bones can rub together directly when you move the joint.

How are cartilage injuries treated?

At Legacy Orthopaedics, Dr. Riley diagnoses and treats cartilage injuries ranging in severity. He sees many patients with knee cartilage damage who are too young for knee replacement surgery. 

In cases like these, he uses cartilage preservation techniques to repair the cartilage and ease significant pain and functional limitations.

When you come in for treatment, Dr. Riley helps you determine which of these cartilage preservation techniques will benefit you the most:

Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI)

ACI is a repair procedure for damaged knee cartilage. During a quick, 30-minute arthroscopic surgery, Dr. Riley removes a small portion of cartilage and sends it to a lab to harvest chondrocytes from it. 

He expands those cartilage-producing cells in number, and during a second open surgery, he implants them into the injured knee. 

Matrix-induced chondrocyte implantation (MACI)

MACI is very similar to ACI. The key difference is that Dr. Riley grows the cartilage cells on a collagen matrix before implanting them into the knee joint. 

Osteochondral autograft transfer system (OATS)

OATS is an arthroscopic surgery that involves harvesting a portion of cartilage and bone from a part of the knee that doesn’t bear much of your weight and transferring it to the damaged area. Over time, the graft fuses with the bone and cartilage in its new place.

After any treatment for cartilage injuries at Legacy Orthopaedics, you take part in a physical rehabilitation program to help the joint’s healing and improve functionality. 

Schedule your treatment consultation for cartilage injuries over the phone or online at Legacy Orthopaedics today.