Highlights
- •Chondral defects can be a particularly challenging clinical presentation and can predispose patients to developing degenerative joint disease, affecting their quality of life as well as sport activity and aspirations.
- •Internal fixation for acute chondral fractures is an effective method to treat acute chondral fractures in both adolescents and young adults that want to get back to an active lifestyle.
- •Patients report no complications, good recovery time and satisfactory outcomes for pain and activity level.
Abstract
Introduction
Chondral defects can be a particularly challenging clinical presentation. Because
damaged cartilage does not heal itself, an evolution of multiple new surgical treatments
designed specifically for cartilage repair and restoration have been introduced. Internal
fixation has demonstrated good benefits in case reports and small qualitative studies.
Our systematic review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of internal fixation in
the management of acute chondral fractures.
Methods
A comprehensive search strategy was carried out using the NICE Healthcare Databases
Advanced Search. The systematic review was prospectively registered with PROSPERO
(CRD42022302976) and was performed in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines.
Results
Eleven studies consisting of fifty patients were included in this systematic review.
Seventy-eight percent of patients showed good results and twenty-two percent of the
cases had excellent results. Ninety-two percent of patients returned to preoperative
level of sport activities at the end of the follow-up period. All of them returned
to the original activity level without pain, stiffness, or restriction of movement
after 1 year latest. The majority of patients had no complications at all, good recovery
time and satisfactory outcomes for pain and activity level. The only complications
presented were patella instability and quadriceps weakness.
Conclusion
Internal fixation for acute chondral fractures is an effective method to treat acute
chondral fractures in both adolescents and young adults that want to get back to an
active lifestyle. However, more data examining the long-term functional status, quality
of life (QoL), recovery post-injury and pain free sports activity involvement are
needed.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 15, 2022
Accepted:
August 8,
2022
Received in revised form:
July 11,
2022
Received:
March 27,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V.
