Objective: To sum up the studying course and latter development of repair of injury of growth plate.
Methods: Recent original articles about repair of injury of growth plate were extensively reviewed, focused on the progresses in understanding repair of injury of growth plate and comparison of several major reparative methods.
Results: Repair of injury of growth plate is a great difficulty in experimental study and clinical treatment of pediatric orthopedics. Graft of free growth plate and cartilage were unfavorably used because of lack of blood supplement. Although graft of vascularized growth plate solved circulation problem, both two kinds of grafts were involved in limitation of donor and immunologic reaction. Non-cartilaginous tissue and material could only prevent formation of bony bridge in small defect of growth plate and lacked ability of regenerative repair. Transfer of tissue engineered cartilage might be the best choice for repair of injury of growth plate.
Conclusion: Considering source of transplanted material, reparative effect and adverse reaction, repair of injury of growth plate with tissue engineered cartilage deserves further investigation.