Treatment of Articular Cartilage Defects: A Descriptive Analysis of Clinical Characteristics and Global Trends Reported from 2001 to 2020

To evaluate the clinical characteristics and global trends in the surgical treatment of articular cartilage defects.

Studies in English published between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2020 were retrieved from MEDLINE, WOS, INSPEC, SCIELO, KJD, and RSCI on the “Web of Science.” Patient data were extracted, including age, sex, defect location and laterality, duration of follow-up and symptoms, and body mass index (BMI). Data were further stratified according to the surgical method, lesion location, procedural type and geographical area, and time period. A comparative analysis was performed.

Overall, 443 studies involving 26,854 patients (mean age, 35.25 years; men, 60.5%) were included. The mean lesion size and patient BMI were 3.51 cm² and 25.61 kg/m², respectively. Cartilage defects at the knees, talus, and hips affected 20,850 (77.64%), 3,983 (14.83%), and 1,425 (5.31%) patients, respectively. The numbers of patients who underwent autologous chondrocyte implantation, arthroscopic debridement/chondroplasty, osteochondral allograft (OCA), osteochondral autologous transplantation, and microfracture were 7,114 (26.49%), 5,056 (18.83%), 3,942 (14.68%), 3,766 (14.02%), and 2,835 (10.56%), respectively. European patients were the most numerous and youngest. North American patients had the largest defects. The number of patients increased from 305 in 2001 to 3,017 in 2020. In the last 5 years, the frequency of OCAs showed a greatly increasing trend.

Clinical characteristics and global trends in the surgical treatment of articular cartilage defects were revealed. The choice of operation should be based on the patient characteristics and defect location, size, and shape, as well as the patient’s preference.