Trial reportKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2010
Autologous chondrocyte implantation versus microfracture for knee cartilage injury: a prospective randomized trial, with 2-year follow-up.
Trial report in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 149 citations in OpenAlex.
- Surgery for early structural osteoarthritis of the hip and knee: the SCORE evidence synthesis and economic evaluation.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Prognostic factors for the management of chondral defects of the knee and ankle joint: a systematic review.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2023Pooled it
- Chondral injuries in patients with recurrent patellar dislocation: a systematic review.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2022Pooled it
- The comparison between the different generations of autologous chondrocyte implantation with other treatment modalities: a systematic review of clinical trials.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2016Pooled it
- What is the effect of matrices on cartilage repair? A systematic review.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2015Pooled it
- Autologous chondrocyte implantation for the treatment of cartilage lesions of the knee: a systematic review of randomized studies.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2010Pooled it
- Autologous chondrocyte implantation for full thickness articular cartilage defects of the knee.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2010Pooled it
- Biphasic cartilage repair implant versus microfracture in the treatment of focal chondral and osteochondral lesions of the knee: a prospective, multi-center, randomized clinical trial.Journal of orthopaedics and traumatology : official journal of the Italian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology · 2024Trial
- Does an unloader brace reduce knee loading in normally aligned knees?Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2014Trial
- Efficacy of intra-articular polynucleotides in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: a randomized, double-blind clinical trial.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2010Trial
- Replicability of Highly Cited Comparative Studies in Orthopedic Journals.HCA healthcare journal of medicine · 2026Review
- The biomechanical and functional outcomes of fresh osteochondral allograft for the knee: A systematic review.Journal of clinical orthopaedics and trauma · 2025Review
- Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation Is Not Better Than Arthroscopic Debridement for the Treatment of Symptomatic Cartilage Lesions of the Knee: Two-Year Results From a Randomized-Controlled Trial.Arthroscopy, sports medicine, and rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Does progress in microfracture techniques necessarily translate into clinical effectiveness?World journal of orthopedics · 2024Article
- Autologous and Allogeneic Cytotherapies for Large Knee (Osteo)Chondral Defects: Manufacturing Process Benchmarking and Parallel Functional Qualification.Pharmaceutics · 2023Article
- Blood flow restriction added to usual care exercise in patients with early weight bearing restrictions after cartilage or meniscus repair in the knee joint: a feasibility study.Journal of experimental orthopaedics · 2022Article
- Concomitant full-thickness cartilage lesions do not affect patient-reported outcomes at minimum 10-year follow-up after ACL reconstruction.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2022Article
- Patellar Microfracture: Internal Stabilization House-on-Stilts Technique to Achieve Better Results.Arthroscopy techniques · 2022Article
- Biological reconstruction of the joint: Concepts of articular cartilage regeneration and their scientific basis.Journal of clinical orthopaedics and trauma · 2022Review
- Algorithm for Treatment of Focal Cartilage Defects of the Knee: Classic and New Procedures.Cartilage · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The objective was to evaluate the functional performance over a 2-year period following autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) in an open knee procedure compared to microfracture. Objective functional outcome was studied as secondary analysis in a subgroup of patients, in a randomized clinical trial, with concealed allocation and independent evaluators. Sixty-seven patients with local cartilage defect, with a mean size of 2.4 cm(2) (SD 1.5) of the femoral condyle of the knee were included. Thirty-three patients underwent the microfracture and 34 the ACI procedure. An identical rehabilitation protocol was implemented for both groups. Active knee flexion and extension range, anterior laxity, knee extension strength (concentric at 60 degrees/s) and single leg hop performance (single hop, crossover triple hop and 6 m timed hop test) were evaluated pre-surgery and at 6, 9,12 and 24 months post-surgery. We calculated the symmetry index for individual and four performance tests pooled. Mixed linear model analyses were used with confidence interval set at 95%. The change over 2 years for the pooled performance-based tests was comparable between the two treatment arms. At 2 years, 70% (38/54) of all patients returned to >85% symmetry in overall functional performance. A decrease in functional performance at 6 months following ACI resulted in slower recovery at 9 and 12 months compared to microfracture. Rehabilitation following both cartilage repair procedures is a lengthy process. At 2 years after surgery, ACI patients have similar overall functional outcome compared to microfracture patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.