Arthroscopic treatment of osteochondral knee defects with resorbable biphasic synthetic scaffold: clinical and radiological results and long-term survival analysis.

PURPOSE: The aim of our study is to evaluate the long-term results in patients treated with a fully arthroscopic TruFit system for osteochondral lesions of the femoral condyle, analyzing the clinical and radiological outcomes, survival rate, complications, and correlations. METHODS: The study included all patients treated with the TruFit system with a full-thickness focal lesion of the knee cartilage (grade IV according to the ICRS classification), entirely arthroscopically with a minimum follow-up of five years. All patients were evaluated clinically prior to surgery (T0) and at two consecutive follow-ups (T1 36.4 ± 17.03 months and T2 101.63 ± 19.02 months), using the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and the Hospital for Special Surgery Score (HSS). At the final follow-up, the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was evaluated by two orthopaedists using the magnetic resonance observation of cartilage repair tissue (MOCART) score. RESULTS: The sample was formed of 21 patients, of which 14 were males (67%) and 7 females (33%), with a mean age of 51.29 ± 10.70. Of the 21 patients, two underwent prosthetic knee replacement at 24 and 65 months, respectively. At T0, the HSS and the KOOS score were, respectively, 60.71 ± 11.62 and 57.71 ± 6.11. For both clinical values, a significant improvement was noted between T0 and T1 (p < 0.05) and between T0 and T2 (p < 0.05). At the final follow-up, the MOCART value was found to be 45.78 ± 5.27. CONCLUSIONS: The study results highlighted the safety and potential of the arthroscopic TruFit system procedure, which offered a good clinical outcome with stable results at long-term follow-up although we found no correlations between the MRI and clinical results.

Early assessment of patient perception of outcome in total knee replacement.

PURPOSE: the aim of the present study was to measure patient perception in the early period after knee replacement surgery and to correlate health status with the surgery-related outcome. METHODS: thirty-eight consecutive patients who underwent total knee replacement were evaluated before surgery; at the time Radiographic evaluation was used to assess limb alignment and the Oxford Knee Score (OKS) to assess objective outcome. Health outcome was measured with the three-level version of the EuroQol - five dimension (EQ-5D-3L) self-administered questionnaire, a standardized instrument used to measure patient's perception of health status. Evaluation was performed before surgery, at discharge from hospital, and six weeks after surgery. RESULTS: the mean overall EQ-5D-3L scores were 10.23 before surgery, 8.34 at discharge from the hospital, and 6.52 at six weeks. The overall EQ-5D-3L score before surgery was greater than 8 points in 31 of the 38 patients, ranging from 5 to 8 points in 21 of the 38 patients at the discharge and greater than 8 points in six of the 38 patients six weeks after surgery. Patients with scores of over 8 points at six weeks also scored more than 10 points on the discharge assessment. CONCLUSIONS: analysis of early patient reports of performance after TKR showed marked changes in the level of satisfaction during the first six weeks after surgery. An EQ-5D-3L score of 8 or more at follow-up should be considered a sign that the patient has not achieved satisfaction and, accordingly, should be studied in the context of a personalized follow-up schedule in order to identify as soon as possible the causes of impairment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, prognostic case series.