London Cartilage Clinic
Explore expert articles on cartilage care, regenerative treatments, and practical recovery advice from our specialist team.
MACI treatment requires two procedures: a cartilage cell biopsy followed weeks later by graft implantation, after which active rehabilitation extends for approximately one year.
For active patients with cartilage defects, OATS and microfracture produce similar results at two years, but ten-year data favour OATS decisively: 14% treatment failure against 38% for microfracture—a gap reflecting tissue type, as fibrocartilage wears under athletic load whilst genuine hyaline cartilage endures.
Since its introduction in 2013, ChondroFiller has recorded zero serious adverse device effects across more than 19,000 treated cases, with a device complaint rate of 0.06%.
High-grade cartilage lesions on MRI (ICRS Grade 3–4) appear in 5–10% of symptom-free adults; cartilage grade and symptoms do not correlate, and severity alone does not determine whether surgery is required.
By ten years, MACI grafts maintain pain relief and functional gains from year two, with roughly 9 in 10 surviving; prior microfracture compromises durability.
'German gel' is ChondroFiller®, a CE-marked collagen scaffold that recruits the patient's own repair cells to initiate cartilage repair.
