Introduction

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the curative value of surgical methods of articular cartilage knee lesions treatment by using osteochondral fresh autografts. The clinical effects of introduction surgical therapy were evaluated.

Materials and Methods

A group of 10 dogs with cartilage degenerative changes of the knee was treated using autologous osteochondral grafts. The surgical procedures were performed following the mosaicplasty technique described by Hangody using Osteochondral Autograft Transfer System (OATS) instrumental set. During the operation fresh osteochondral autografts were taken from none weight bearing surface, and inserted into the articular cartilage lesions of the stifle joint. The evaluation was done by clinical, radiological and arthroscopic examination in the 6^th and 12^th month after surgery.

Results

The lesions healing 6 months after grafts implantation observed in radiological, and arthroscopic examinations were very good. In all dogs, treated articular surface showed complete fusion with the cylindrical osteochondral grafts. In 6^th month of study in 7 dogs an imperceptible space between the hyaline cartilage of surface of graft and the recipient cartilage was observed on arthroscopic examination. X-ray and arthroscopic examinations carried out in the 12^th month postsurgery showed the appearance of complete filling in with cancellous bone and fibrocartilage in the donor holes and lack of free osteochondral grafts inside the joint space. Only in one case space between recipient site and grafts was seen.

Conclusion

The presented study, demonstrate that fresh osteochondral autograft has a great therapeutic value to the treatment of knee articular cartilage defects in dogs. In all dogs grafts remained stable after their transplantation into the environment of the recipient articular cartilage. The mosaicplasty technique was found to be an efficient method of osteochondral graft transplantation. The conducted observation indicates that osteochondral graft transplantation can be clinically use in OA cartilage changes on the stifle joint in dogs. Usage of this technique in the treatment of stifle OCD lesions in dogs needs further studies.