The Early Osteoarthritic Knee: Implications for Cartilage Repair

Patients with early osteoarthritis (OA) have been reported to have inferior outcomes with an increased prevalence of early failure after cartilage procedures. The underlying reasons for this failure are likely multifactorial, including a chronic synovial and chondrogenic process, which is confounded by persistent muscle weakness and altered pain processing for those with increased preoperative symptom duration. Pain, radiographic changes, patient-reported outcomes, and macroscopic changes on arthroscopic evaluation or MRI can assist clinicians in identifying the early OA knee to both aid in clinical decision making and create realistic postoperative expectations for patients.