Treatment of full thi̇ckness carti̇lage defects by pedunculated and free synovial grefts: A comparative study in an animal model

Osteoarthritis due to articular cartilage defects is the most common muculoskeletal disease in the world. As serious treatment costs may occur once osteoarthritis ensues, researchers began to prefer preventive treatments in order to reduce these costs. Various methods have been tested for his purpose and this is still a current intriguing research area. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of pedunculated synovial grafts and free synovial grafts histologically in the repair of traumatic articular cartilage defects created in a rabbit model. For this purpose twenty four New Zealand white rabbits were divided into two groups of 12 rabbits each. After inducing cartilage defects into the medial condyles, pedunculated synovial grafts were transplanted to the right knees in the first group. In the second group free synovial grafts were applied to the right knees. Left knees formed the control group. At the fourth and eighth weeks, 6 rabbits from each group were sacrificed. The samples were examined histologically. As a result, when control knees were compared with grafts, it was seen that both pedunculated and free synovial grafts had repaired the defective cartilage tissue. This association was found to be more statistically significant in the pedunculated synovial graft group. While the results from the fourth week were statistically significant for both of the study groups, this significance was not observed at the eight week. Key words: Osteoarthritis, cartilage defect, synovial graft.