London Cartilage Clinic
Explore expert articles on cartilage care, regenerative treatments, and practical recovery advice from our specialist team.
Only one in four ACL injuries are correctly identified initially; diagnostic delays allow meniscal and cartilage damage to accumulate undetected, with measurable deterioration within six months.
ChondroFiller injection's documented complication rate sits at approximately 0%, with reoperation rates of 3–8% compared with 41% for microfracture and 37% for ACI procedures.
Focal cartilage defects in the shoulder can be repaired with ChondroFiller, an injectable collagen scaffold that recruits the patient's own cells to rebuild tissue, delivered as an ultrasound-guided outpatient injection requiring no surgery or general anaesthetic.
Degenerative meniscus tears—the most common type in patients over 35—respond equally to physiotherapy as to keyhole surgery; most people with meniscus tears therefore don't require surgery, a finding that has shifted orthopaedic guidelines.
In athletes with focal knee cartilage defects, osteochondral autograft transfer produces roughly double the good outcomes of microfracture over ten years because it transplants intact hyaline cartilage; microfracture's fibrocartilage repair tissue degrades under repetitive athletic load.
Patellofemoral pain typically stems not from the knee but from weak hip abductors that fail to stabilise the femur, allowing the kneecap to drift out of alignment during weight-bearing.
