Cartilage Restoration

If you're an active person with knee pain from cartilage problems, your goal is to get back to full mobility as soon as possible. Cartilage restoration can repair the damage and reduce pain and stiffness — letting you get back to the activities you love.

Experts at Allegheny Health Network: Why choose us?

Our orthopaedic surgeons use extensive training, experience, and clinical research to refine and develop new, innovative therapies to restore cartilage. At AHN, you have access to:

• A personalized treatment plan, based on your physical ability and long-term goals.
• A team of specialists that review all aspects of your health from every perspective.

Who needs cartilage restoration?

Healthy cartilage inside your knee joint allows bones to move without friction. It acts as a shock absorber when you run and jump. When there is not enough cartilage, due to injuries, the bones rub together, causing pain and swelling.

Cartilage restoration offers help for active people between 14 and 55 years old who have with cartilage defects in their knees.  We can restore your flexibility and strength, and prevent further damage and degeneration that might lead to arthritis.

The benefits of restoration:

• It uses your own tissues (or donor tissues) to repair your knees.
• You may be able to avoid the complications of a knee replacement.
• You keep your own knee, which holds up to more vigorous activity.
• You’ll be able to move freely with less pain. 

Cartilage restoration options at AHN

Surgical cartilage restoration procedures available at AHN include:

• Matrix-associated autologous chondrocyte implantations (MACI): First, our doctors use arthroscopy to remove sample of your cartilage cells. We send this cartilage tissue to a laboratory where the cells are grown and implanted in a special collagen membrane. 

Second, the cells on the membrane are transplanted into the defect in your knee. The cells grow and fill in the areas where cartilage is missing. 

• Osteochondral autograft/allograft transplantation: Surgeons remove a core of the injured cartilage and the underlying bone of the knee and replace it with a core of donated cartilage and bone.  
• Osteotomy: This is used in combination with cartilage restoration to correct leg alignment issues, and take the pressure off repaired or damaged tissue.  
• Stem cell therapy: Sometimes, we pull your stem cells from bone marrow and add them to the knee during surgery in an effort to improve healing. (Stem cell therapy alone has not been shown to regenerate cartilage in a reliable fashion.)  

Contact us

Call (412) DOCTORS (412) 362-8677 to request an appointment and learn more about AHN Orthopaedic services.