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Advanced Techniques of Cartilage Repair in Football Players

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Return to Play in Football

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Abstract

Soccer is a high-speed sport activity that is responsible for a wide range of athletic injuries, which can involve articular cartilage and the underlying subchondral bone. These kinds of defects may result in debilitating symptoms and, if untreated, can lead to secondary joint degeneration. For these reasons, it is mandatory to address symptomatic defects of the articular surface in order to restore the correct knee function and allow an early and durable return to sport activity. The management of these lesions in athletes is complex and multifactorial, often involving a conservative approach, whereas the need for a surgical approach to address these defects is debated. Surgical options range from reparative techniques, such as microfractures, to reconstructive ones, including mosaicplasty, to the more recent regenerative procedures, like autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI), with or without the combined use of biomaterials. Finally, one-step techniques have recently been proposed, aimed at exploiting the self-regenerative potential of the body.

Positive results have been obtained over the years in terms of successfully returning the injured athlete back to sports activity. Even though useful information about the most appropriate indication for each technique can be obtained with a review of the literature, to date there is limited evidence on the superiority of some approaches among the others. Thus, until appropriate evidence-based protocols are developed, the surgeon experience remains key in order to offer the best surgical management for injured articular cartilage, provided that surgery is followed by an early and intensive rehabilitation protocol, tailored on both patient and lesion characteristics.

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Top 5 Evidence Based References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. I Clinic – Nano-Biotechnology Lab, Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute, Via di Barbiano n. 1/10, 40136, Bologna, Italy

    Andrea Sessa, Francesco Perdisa & Giuseppe Filardo

  2. Department of Biomedical Sciences – Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Knee Joint Reconstruction Center - 3rd Orthopaedic Division, Humanitas Clinical Institute, Humanitas University, 20089, Rozzano, Milan, Italy

    Elizaveta Kon

Authors
  1. Andrea Sessa
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  2. Francesco Perdisa
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  3. Giuseppe Filardo
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  4. Elizaveta Kon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Sessa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Volker Musahl

  2. Department of Orthopaedics, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Jón Karlsson

  3. Department of Trauma Surgery, University Medical Centre Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    Werner Krutsch

  4. Santa Monica, California, USA

    Bert R. Mandelbaum

  5. Clínica do Dragão, Espregueira-Mendes Sports Centre, Porto, Portugal

    João Espregueira-Mendes

  6. Orthopaedic Surgery, Aspetar Hospital, Doha, Qatar

    Pieter d'Hooghe

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Sessa, A., Perdisa, F., Filardo, G., Kon, E. (2018). Advanced Techniques of Cartilage Repair in Football Players. In: Musahl, V., Karlsson, J., Krutsch, W., Mandelbaum, B., Espregueira-Mendes, J., d'Hooghe, P. (eds) Return to Play in Football. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55713-6_46

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