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Subchondral Bone Grafting

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Knee Arthroscopy and Knee Preservation Surgery

Abstract

The importance of subchondral bone in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis is well known, but its crucial role in the treatment of traumatic cartilage lesions is still underestimated. The subchondral bone region is both an important shock absorber and crucial for the cartilage nutrition and metabolism. When repairing chondral and osteochondral lesions, more knowledge is needed of how to return the cartilage-bone unit into a well-functioning biomechanical area in order to reestablish the disturbed joint homeostasis. Clinically, subchondral grafting is often used when repairing osteochondral defects, and the surgeon has to consider how to best fill up the subchondral area for the best development of the overlying cartilage. However, also pure chondral lesions with sclerotic bone plates might be turned into a subchondral lesion to improve the gradient repair from bone to cartilage area. Autologous bone in different formats is most often the first choice when repairing defects, but allogeneic and synthetic bone alternatives are in much use. This chapter will discuss the importance of the subchondral bone and how to use subchondral bone grafting in combination with cartilage repairs

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cartilage Research Unit, University of Gothenburg, Region Halland Orthopaedics Varberg Hospital, Varberg, Sweden

    Mats Brittberg

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  1. Mats Brittberg
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Correspondence to Mats Brittberg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sports Medicine Clinic, Stanford University, Redwood City, CA, USA

    Seth L. Sherman

  2. Orthopaedics, Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jorge Chahla

  3. Complex Knee and Sports Medicine Surgeon, Twin Cities Orthopedics, Edina, MN, USA

    Robert F. LaPrade

  4. Sports Medicine Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA

    Scott A. Rodeo

Section Editor information

  1. No affiliation provided

    Andreas Gomoll

  2. No affiliation provided

    Saris Daniel

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Brittberg, M. (2024). Subchondral Bone Grafting. In: Sherman, S.L., Chahla, J., LaPrade, R.F., Rodeo, S.A. (eds) Knee Arthroscopy and Knee Preservation Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29430-3_58

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29430-3_58

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-29429-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-29430-3

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