How I Repair a Cartilage Defect
In this video, I walk you through a cartilage repair surgery.
Preparing ahead of time
Before we even start on the joint itself, we've usually already harvested bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) — cells drawn from your own bone marrow that will later support the repair.
Getting a clear view
Inside the knee, I first clear away the fat pad to improve visualisation. With that out of the way, I can identify the cartilage defect — the area where the smooth cartilage surface has worn away or been damaged.
Preparing the defect
Using a shaver and other specialised instruments, I prepare the edges of the defect, creating a clean, stable rim for the repair to sit in.
I then measure the defect's size, since this determines how much scaffold material is needed.
Switching to a dry field
At this point, I transition to a dry scope — draining the fluid from the joint so the defect can be seen and worked on without fluid interference. The area is dried further with gauze, giving a clear, dry surface for what comes next.
The repair itself
Into the prepared defect, I inject the scaffold together with the BMAC harvested earlier. The scaffold acts as a structural framework, while the BMAC provides the biological material to encourage new tissue to form within it.
I then shape the scaffold to sit flush with the surrounding healthy cartilage.
The before-and-after photos show the result: a defect on the femoral cartilage, filled and restored with a scaffold-BMAC repair sitting level with the joint surface around it.
I am not just patching over damage, but giving the joint a real chance to grow something new in its place.
If you have any other questions before your surgery, feel free to ask me.