Background: Ideal management of osteochondral lesions in the ankle joint is still theme of debate. Scaffold-based repair is emerging as a new approach for regenerative treatment.
Methods: Articles published in PubMed from 2000 to January 2012 addressing cartilage scaffold-based treatment were identified, including levels I-IV evidence clinical trials with measures of functional, clinical or imaging outcome.
Results: The analysis showed a progressively increasing number of articles from 2000. The number of selected papers was 19:15 focusing on two-step and 4 on one-step procedures; no randomized studies, 3 comparative studies, 11 case series and 5 case reports were identified.
Conclusions: Regenerative surgical approach with scaffold-based procedures is emerging as a potential therapeutic option for the treatment of chondral lesions of the ankle. One step treatments simplify the procedure and the results reported are very close to the previous techniques. However, well-designed studies are lacking, and randomized long-term trials are necessary to confirm the potential of these techniques.
Level of evidence: Review - IV.
Copyright © 2012 European Foot and Ankle Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.