London Cartilage Clinic
Explore expert articles on cartilage care, regenerative treatments, and practical recovery advice from our specialist team.
Type I collagen injected into shoulder cartilage defects gels in place and recruits the body's progenitor cells to regenerate hyaline-like cartilage — not symptomatic relief, but structural repair delivered in an outpatient setting without surgery or general anaesthetic.
Only 3–8% of ChondroFiller-treated patients require further surgery over three to five years, compared with 41% for microfracture—because the collagen scaffold recruits the patient's own repair tissue, which persists after the scaffold resorbs.
Meniscal tears independently predict cartilage loss and osteoarthritis. Tear subtype, patient age, BMI, and alignment determine the rate of progression: posterior root tears in younger patients accelerate rapidly, whilst isolated degenerative tears may remain stable for years.
ChondroFiller injection is an ultrasound-guided, outpatient treatment for focal elbow cartilage defects: a collagen scaffold recruits the patient's own progenitor cells to regenerate tissue, avoiding cell culture.
ChondroFiller, a murine-derived collagen hydrogel, recruits the patient's own progenitor cells to repair focal cartilage lesions; hyaluronic acid viscosupplements like Durolane and Cingal restore joint lubrication in diffuse osteoarthritis without repairing tissue.
A 3.6-year follow-up found 36% of microfracture repairs remained incompletely healed; the repair tissue is fibrocartilage—lacking the biochemical environment to guide marrow cells into producing true cartilage, creating structurally weak tissue that deteriorates under load rather than rebounding elastically.
