Trial reportKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2018
Hydrogel implant is as effective as osteochondral autologous transplantation for treating focal cartilage knee injury in 24 months.
Trial report in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Tissue engineering of articular cartilage using nasal chondrocytes on alginate-chitosan-based composite scaffolds.Cell and tissue banking · 2026Article
- Hydrogels for Osteochondral Interface Regeneration: Biomaterial Types, Processes, and Animal Models.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Arthroscopic Osteochondral Autograft Transplantation (OAT) in Patients with Focal Osteochondral/Chondral Lesions of the Knee Mid-Term Clinical Outcome.Malaysian orthopaedic journal · 2025Article
- Does progress in microfracture techniques necessarily translate into clinical effectiveness?World journal of orthopedics · 2024Article
- Enzyme immobilization in hydrogels: A perfect liaison for efficient and sustainable biocatalysis.Engineering in life sciences · 2022Review
- Synthetic PVA Osteochondral Implants for the Knee Joint: Mechanical Characteristics During Simulated Gait.The American journal of sports medicine · 2021Article
- Article
- Therapeutic effects and adaptive limits of an acellular technique by ultrapurified alginate (UPAL) gel implantation in canine osteochondral defect models.Regenerative therapy · 2020Article
- [Effectiveness of arthroscopic microfracture combined with osteochondral autologous transplantation for large area cartilage injury of femoral condyle of knee].Zhongguo xiu fu chong jian wai ke za zhi = Zhongguo xiufu chongjian waike zazhi = Chinese journal of reparative and reconstructive surgery · 2020Article
- Swelling characteristics and biocompatibility of ionic liquid based hydrogels for biomedical applications.PloS one · 2020Article
- Microfractures and hydrogel scaffolds in the treatment of osteochondral knee defects: A clinical and histological evaluation.Journal of clinical orthopaedics and traumaArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe treatment approach for a patient with knee joint focal cartilage lesion is a difficult decision. To date, there has been no randomized clinical trial involving Hydrogel (Cartiva™). This study evaluated and compared the results of a hydrogel implant (Cartiva™) with autologous osteochondral transplantation (AOT) for treating knee joint focal cartilage lesions.
methodsThirty-eight symptomatic patients, with a focal cartilage lesion of Outerbridge grades III or IV, were randomized into one of two groups according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Group I underwent AOT, and Group II was treated with a Hydrogel implant. Patients were evaluated preoperatively and again postoperatively at 6, 12, and 24 months using the subjective International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) scores, Visual Analog Scale for Pain (VAS Pain), Activities of Daily Living Scale (ADLS) and Lysholm score.
resultsBoth groups showed significant improvements from baseline (pre-surgery) to post-surgery (6, 12, and 24 months; p < 0.05), but there was no difference between the groups. Regarding complications, prolonged pain was observed in four patients (10.5%), two from each group, with a regression of symptoms within 1 year.
conclusionThe Hydrogel implant showed similar efficiency as the autologous osteochondral graft for treating knee joint focal cartilage lesions. Both techniques showed satisfactory results compared to preoperative status. The Hydrogel implant was safe and effective, and it provided good stability and joint function at 2-year follow-up. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: I.
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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.