Mid and long-term clinical outcomes after microfracture for the knee joint cartilage injury

Aim: We aimed to evaluate the mid and long term functional results of patients who underwent microfractures for cartilage injuries in the knee joint. Material and Methods: Forty five patients who underwent arthroscopic microfracture for knee joint cartilage injury between January 2010 and December 2015 were included in the study. Preoperative and postoperative functional status evaluations of the patients were made using scales such as Lysholm knee scoring, VOMAC (Western Ontario Mmaster) and KOSS (Knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score). In addition, the effects of age, gender, mechanism of injury, anatomical consideration, cartilage injury stage, defect size, follow-up time and body mass index on functional results were evaluated. Results: Of the forty five patients included in the study, twenty six of them were male and nineteen were female. Their mean age was 39,06 (18-58) years, and the mean follow-up period was 80,3 (60-120) months. Lysholm, VOMAC and KOSS scores of the patients prior to and after the operation were statistically significant (p <0,05). Statistically, good results were achieved with male gender, age below 50 years and body mass index below 30 kg/m2 (p <0,05). It was observed statistically that the size of the defect does not influence the functional results (p>0,05). When the patients were questioned regarding functional satisfication, 26 (%57,8) of the 45 patients were satisfied, but 5 (%11,1) were not. Conclusion: Microfracture is an effective treatment modality in the management of cartilage injuries. With appropirate patient selection, good results can be obtained. According to the results of our study, the success of this method increases when the patients are male, under 50 years of age, have a history of trauma and a body mass index below 30 kg/m2 . Keywords: Cartilage injury, knee arthroscopy, microfracture.