MACI: Cartilage Damage
Treatment for Cartilage Damage
Small areas of wear or damage can be helped by reducing activity level and taking occasional painkillers and surgery can often be avoided.
The simplest form of surgery is Arthroscopic debridement which helps by simply tidying up the roughened surfaces to reduce the catching. This is a day case procedure with a short recovery time of a few weeks and may well be enough for mild symptoms.
Small areas of damage can be treated by the Microfracture procedure or insertion of small repair plugs (TruFit plugs). Both these techniques allow the bone marrow cells to grow into the damaged area in order to lay down new repair surface. However these techniques are not suitable for larger areas and this is where the MACI procedure is indicated.
