London Cartilage Clinic
Explore expert articles on cartilage care, regenerative treatments, and practical recovery advice from our specialist team.
In roughly half of ACL ruptures, articular cartilage sustains damage at the moment of rupture. The joint's inflammatory cascade thereafter actively degrades cartilage matrix, which cannot self-repair; this initiates osteoarthritis typically a decade earlier than in uninjured peers.
Functional recovery from ChondroFiller outpaces structural repair: patients achieve a clinically meaningful 30-point IKDC improvement within twelve months, but cartilage maturation on MRI continues beyond that functional plateau.
ACI cartilage repair succeeds in 82% of cases, with 74% of patients retaining their natural knee at 20 years, but only among a tightly defined cohort: focal cartilage defects, no prior surgery, minimal osteoarthritis, age under 50.
A partial ACL tear spans from mild stretch to high-grade damage affecting most of the ligament; tears involving less than 25% of the cross-section carry a favourable outlook, but those affecting 50–75% carry substantially higher risk of progressing to complete rupture.
Ultrasound-guided hip injection achieves 100% accurate joint placement versus 72% for landmark-guided techniques, essential for ChondroFiller, which gels irreversibly within 3–5 minutes.
MACI involves two phases: chondrocytes cultured on collagen membrane over four to six weeks, then implanted to mature over up to two years within the joint, generating hyaline-like cartilage rather than the fibrocartilage produced by microfracture.
