The purpose of this study is to evaluate the early functional outcome and activity level in athletes and soldiers with large full thickness cartilage defects of the knee that underwent either ‘classic’ autologous chondrocyte implantation using periosteal flap coverage (ACI-P) or 3-D matrix-assisted chondrocyte implantation (ACI-M). Between April 2002 and January 2004, 19 patients (15 male, 4 female, average age 32.2 years) with 22 full-thickness cartilage defects in 19 knees were treated with ACI in our centre. The mean post-injury interval was 39.8 months whereas 17 (89.5%) patients had undergone at least one surgical procedure before ACI. The average defect size was 6.54 cm2 (located in MFC:7, LFC:7 or trochlear:2 while 3 patients had bifocal lesions in both LFC and TRC). Novocart¯ cultured chondrocytes with periosteal flap coverage were used in 11 patients and Novocart-3D¯ cell impregnated collagen patch in 8. The functional outcome was evaluated with IKDC form, Tegner activity scale and Lysholm score after a mean follow-up period of 26.5 months.Introduction
Methods
The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging with that of Stress views of the ankle in testing the integrity of the lateral ankle ligaments. Arthroscopic diagnosis was used as the gold standard. This was a prospective study involving 45 patients who had previous trauma to the ankle and reported symptoms of ankle instability. Our patients were recreational athletes or military patients. These patients had MRI evaluation prior to arthroscopic evaluation and treatment of the ankle. The diagnosis regarding the integrity of the Calcaneofibular ligament (CFL) and the Anterior Talo-fibular ligament (ATFL), as obtained from the MRI was compared against the assessment of integrity from the stress views. These were compared against the assessment made by direct visualisation of the ligaments during arthroscopy. The sensitivity, specificity, negative (NPV) and positive predictive values (PPV) and accuracy were then calculated.Aim
Methods
