Cartilage damage

Treatment

Minor cartilage damage may improve on its own within a few weeks, but more severe damage will often require surgery.

This page covers:

Initial treatment and self-care

Physiotherapy

Surgery

Less common surgical procedures

Initial treatment and self-care

If you've injured your joint and your symptoms aren't too severe for example, you're still able toput weight on and move the jointyou can often look after yourself using "PRICE therapy".

PRICE stands for:

  • Protection protect the affected area from further injury by using a support, such as a knee brace.
  • Rest rest the affected joint as much as possible during the first two or three days (crutches may help if you've injured your knee or ankle). Then try gradually returning to light activity over the next few days and weeks.
  • Ice apply an ice pack or bag of frozen vegetables wrapped in a towel to the injured area for 15 to 20 minutes every two to three hours during the first two or three days.
  • Compression compress or bandage the injured area to limit any swelling and movement that could damage it further. You can use a simple elastic bandage or an elasticated tubular bandage available from a pharmacy.
  • Elevation keep the injured area raised and supported on a pillow whenever you can to help reduce swelling.

If your joint is painful, take ordinary painkillers such as paracetamol or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) .

Visit your GP if your symptoms haven't started to improve after a few days of PRICE therapy.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy canbe helpful if you have difficulty moving the affected joint. Your GP may be able to refer you to a physiotherapist, or you may choose to pay for private treatment.

A physiotherapist can teach you exercises to helpstrengthen the muscles surrounding or supporting your joint. Thismay helpto reduce pain andpressure on the joint.

Physiotherapy can also beuseful when you're recovering from the surgical procedures described below.

Surgery

Severe cartilage damage doesn't tend to heal very well on its own, so surgery is often necessary in these cases.

Surgeryisusually performed using arthroscopy a type of "keyhole" surgery where special instruments are inserted into the joint through small cuts (incisions)although sometimes larger incisions need to be made.

It's normallycarried outunder general anaesthetic (where you're asleep).

Some of the main procedures are:

  • Lavage and debridement the joint is cleaned out to remove any loose tissue and the edges of the damaged area are trimmed to make them smooth. It may sometimesbe possibleto repair the damage at the same time.
  • Marrow stimulation (microfracture) tiny holes are made in the bone beneath the damaged cartilage, which releases bone marrow into it. Themarrow cells then begin to stimulate the production of new cartilage.
  • Mosaicplasty small plugs ofhealthy cartilage from non-weightbearing areas of a joint, such as the side of the knee, are removed and used to replace small areas ofdamaged cartilage.
  • Osteotomy the alignment of the leg is altered slightly to reduce pressure on the damaged area and improve pain. This usually involves adding or removing a wedge of bone from the shin or thigh bone. The bone is fixed with a plate until it heals.
  • Joint replacement replacing the whole joint with an artificial one, such as a knee replacement or hip replacement ,is occasionally necessary if the damage is particularly severe.

Talk to your surgeon about which type of surgery they think is best for you, what the possible risks are, and how long they expect it will take you to recover.

You'llusually need to take things easy for at least a few weeks after surgery, and you may not be able to return to strenuous activities and sports for several months.

Less common surgical procedures

There are also a number of alternative surgical techniques that are sometimes used to treat cartilage damage, including:

  • Allograft osteochondral transplantation (AOT) similar to mosaicplasty, but the replacement cartilage isobtained from a recently deceased donor and is used to repair larger damaged areas.
  • Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) the surgeon first takes a small sample of cartilage cells from the joint. These are then used to grow more cells in a laboratory and the new cells are used to replace the damaged cartilage.
  • Artificial scaffolds a special patch or gel is used to repair the damaged cartilage. It may be used in combination withmarrow stimulation or on its own.

However, these procedures are only carried out in a few hospitals in the UKand aren't routinely provided on the NHS.You may be able to pay for them privately, but theycan be very expensive.

TheNational Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)says there's too much uncertainty about ACI for it to be used on the NHS, unless it's being done as part of a clinical trial .But this will be reviewed again soon, so this recommendation may change.

For more information, see the NICE guidance onthe use of autologous chondrocyte implantation for the treatment of cartilage defects in the knee joints .

Content supplied by the NHS Website

Medically Reviewed by a doctor on 30 Jun 2016