Introduction The treatment of symptomatic focal articular cartilage defects continues to present a clinical dilemma for many orthopedists. Surgical approaches to this problem can be categorized into those that attempt to resurface focal defects through tissue repair or regeneration and…
Articular cartilage is a unique tissue with no vascular, nerve, or lymphatic supply. The lack of vascular and lymphatic circulation may be one of the reasons why articular cartilage has such a poor intrinsic capacity to heal. There is no…
Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) is a pathologic process in which the subchondral bone and the overlying articular cartilage detach from the underlying bony surface. The disease results in subchondral bone loss and destabilization of the overlying articular cartilage, leading to separation…
Articular cartilage is a remarkable tissue with a unique functional architecture that supports multiplanar motion under a wide variety of loading conditions. In the absence of injury, and when allowed to function within its “zone of homeostasis,” human articular cartilage…
Introduction Over the past two decades, fluoroscopy has been used as a tool to perform in vivo analysis of postoperative total joint replacement (TJR) results, primarily knees. The fluoroscope digital images frames when computationally combined with three-dimensional (3D) graphical models…
Introduction Five decades of knee arthroplasty in the Western world have seen periodic modifications in implant design and technique to suit and match the requirements of the white population. The past two decades have seen an unprecedented surge in the…
* Acknowledgments: We especially appreciate the work of the many surgeons who dedicated time and effort to collaborating with the Dartmouth Biomedical Engineering Center Implant Retrieval Laboratory by sending retrieved devices. Without their commitment to this enterprise of continuing study…
Wear simulation testing of knee replacements allows the influence of various design and condition variables on the wear performance to be examined in a controlled environment. One million cycles is considered to represent a full year in vivo; however, this…
Patellar fracture and anterior knee pain remain as significant complications following total knee replacement (TKR). In several TKR studies reported in the literature the average incidence of anterior knee pain was 12%. Long-term, large-cohort studies have reported patellar fracture rates…
Knee joint injuries are among the most prevalent musculoskeletal problems, and there are a number of potential reasons for these injuries. In younger adults, sports tend to be a major cause of injury, whereas arthritic degeneration, such as rheumatoid arthritis…