London Cartilage Clinic
Explore expert articles on cartilage care, regenerative treatments, and practical recovery advice from our specialist team.
Advanced knee osteoarthritis is not a single-tissue disorder: Grade III/IV disease simultaneously damages the articular cartilage (removing structural support) and the synovial membrane (perpetuating inflammation), leaving single-injection treatments unable to address both sites.
High tibial osteotomy delays or prevents total knee replacement in roughly 60–80% of appropriately selected patients by ten years. The procedure corrects varus deformity—the bow-legged misalignment concentrating destructive load on a single knee compartment—by shifting that load toward intact cartilage.
Cartilage has no blood supply; movement pumps synovial fluid through its matrix to feed chondrocytes, so immobilisation after injury actively harms the tissue independent of the original damage.
The ChondroFiller pathway for knee cartilage damage is determined by geometry: diffuse wear uses ultrasound-guided injection; focal, contained defects use either injection or the surgical Liquid Cartilage procedure.
Bone-plug transfer suits focal talar defects where subchondral bone is damaged, in younger active patients; it restores native hyaline cartilage and bone simultaneously, producing repairs that endure a decade where microfracture's fibrocartilage alternative breaks down in two to three years.
Kneecap pain that worsens reliably around menstruation reflects three converging biological mechanisms: fluctuating oestrogen alters soft tissue laxity and cartilage protection, whilst systemic prostaglandins lower pain thresholds across joints already under mechanical stress.
