London Cartilage Clinic
Explore expert articles on cartilage care, regenerative treatments, and practical recovery advice from our specialist team.
Cingal and ChondroFiller are not competing treatments — one reduces inflammation in widespread joint degeneration through hyaluronate and steroid; the other repairs focal cartilage defects with a collagen scaffold.
Cartilage defects larger than 2 cm² cannot be repaired in one operation because there aren't enough cells on site; both ACI and MACI harvest cells elsewhere in the knee, multiply them in the laboratory, and implant the expanded population — MACI pre-seeds them on a membrane, ACI as a liquid suspension.
Repeated friction between the iliotibial band and femoral condyle during knee flexion causes a predictable pain pattern—appearing 15–20 minutes into running, fading with rest—making it the second most common knee injury in active patients.
Patients treated with ChondroFiller show mean IKDC improvement of 32.4 points sustained at 36 months, with 70–85% achieving meaningful symptom relief at 3–5 years and reoperation rates of 3–8%.
ChondroFiller injection delivers a Type I collagen scaffold under ultrasound guidance to coat worn patellar cartilage and stimulate tissue regeneration; clinical evidence shows sustained IKDC functional improvements of approximately 30 points over three years.
ChondroFiller injection suits adults with full-thickness articular cartilage damage, recruiting host cells through an injectable collagen scaffold to deliver 70–85% meaningful symptom relief by five years and 3–8% reoperation rates.
