London Cartilage Clinic
Explore expert articles on cartilage care, regenerative treatments, and practical recovery advice from our specialist team.
Cartilage defects larger than roughly 10 cm² exceed the capability of autograft and cell-based repair; fresh osteochondral allograft — composite tissue of donor cartilage and bone — becomes the reconstructive option. Viable chondrocytes persist only 28 days post-procurement, restricting the procedure to centres with tissue-bank access.
ChondroFiller®, marketed as German cartilage gel, is a Class III medical device made from non-living mouse collagen that recruits the patient's own cells to rebuild cartilage tissue as the scaffold biodegrades.
An MRI partial ACL tear shows some fibres intact and others failed, but this anatomy does not predict whether the knee will be stable or need surgery. The same residual structure permits normal cycling in one patient yet produces giving-way episodes in an athlete who pivots at speed.
ChondroFiller® liquid carries a reported 0% complication rate compared with microfracture's 7%; this ultrasound-guided outpatient injection requires no surgery and triggers cartilage regeneration, with improvements emerging over weeks to months.
An ultrasound-guided injection of collagen scaffold creates a matrix for the patient's own chondrocytes to regenerate focal ankle cartilage damage in a single outpatient appointment; success rates in appropriately selected cases reach 70–85%.
An ACL grade on MRI does not reliably predict how much pain or instability the injury causes. Around half of all ACL tears involve concurrent cartilage or meniscal injury, so specialist assessment is needed to interpret findings and plan treatment.
