Knee Cartilage Replacement Therapy - Osteochondral Autograft

Osteochondral Autograft

Osteochondral autograft (OATS) is a technique that requires that the surgeon transplant sections of bone and cartilage. First, the damaged section of bone and cartilage is removed from the joint. Then a new healthy dowel of bone with its cartilage covering is removed from the same joint and transplanted or grafted into the hole left from removing the old damaged bone and cartilage. The healthy bone and cartilage are taken from areas of low stress in the joint so as to prevent weakening the joint. Depending on the severity and overall size of the damage multiple plugs or dowels may be required to adequately repair the joint. A similar treatment is known as mosaicplasty, and is talked about in the next paragraph.