Cartilage Restoration

Healthy cartilage helps your knee joints move smoothly, without pain. When an injury or wear and tear damages your knee cartilage, the Premier Orthopedics cartilage restoration team tailors a treatment plan just for you – to restore knee function and lessen pain.

Our team of specialists draws from a wide range of services to match treatment to your exact needs, including physical therapy and sports medicine; other types of nonsurgical care; and surgical procedures.

MACI Cartilage Transplant

For active patients with knee pain, Premier Orthopedics offers a range of cartilage restoration treatment options, including a cartilage transplant technique called matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation (MACI). MACI transplant, a two-step procedure using the patient’s own cartilage, is most effective for active patients, from their teens to 50s.

In the first stage of a MACI procedure, a small piece of healthy cartilage tissue is removed from a non-weight-bearing area of your knee joint, through a small arthroscopic incision. In a lab, this tissue grows on a membrane into a larger piece of cartilage.

In the second stage, the cartilage-bearing membrane is transplanted into the damaged area of your cartilage through an open incision. The healthy cartilage cells grow to repair the damage.

Range of Cartilage Restoration Treatments

Premier Orthopedics offers a range of cartilage restoration treatments. Our specialists are board-certified orthopedic physicians and surgeons who are trained and experienced in cartilage restoration procedures – and in determining which procedure is best for your unique needs.

Nonsurgical Treatment

  • Physical therapy to help you regain joint function and strength for work and everyday activity
  • Sports medicine to help you return to the game after an injury sidelines you
  • Platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections. These injections use your own platelets to help your body heal itself and return to a healthier, pre-injury state.
  • Stem cell therapy to help your body heal damage and relieve pain from arthritis, aging, and injury

Surgical Treatment

  • Cartilage transplant procedures:
    • MACI cartilage transplants, a transplant using the patient’s own cartilage
    • DeNovo technique, a transplant using donor cartilage, instead of your own cartilage
  • Microfracture, in which tiny holes are drilled in the bone, at the base of the cartilage damage, enabling bone marrow cells, or stem cells, to bleed through to form a clot that turns into new cartilage
  • Abrasion arthroplasty, in which a high-speed burr removes damaged cartilage, which, like microfracture, stimulates growth of new cartilage
  • Realignment surgery, or osteotomy, in which a surgeon removes or adds a wedge of bone near a damaged joint to shift weight from the area of damaged cartilage

Besides restoring joint function and relieving pain, cartilage restoration treatment can help prevent further damage to cartilage, which can lead to osteoarthritis and the need for joint replacement surgery.

How To Reach Us

We make it easy to find cartilage restoration care at Premier Orthopedics. Learn more.