Clinical articular cartilage repair—an up to date review

Articular cartilage is a tissue with very limited self-renewal capacity due to its avascularity and lack of innervation. Many people develop severe disability after chondral and osteochondral traumatic injuries and there exist several options to treat such injuries in order to reduce pain and restore joint homeostasis. A disturbed joint homeostasis after joint trauma may induce generalized loss of cartilage with a risk of progression into a full organ disease: osteoarthritis. Repair long-term durability seems to be an important factor when to choose the right type of treatment. In this review, current non-operative and surgical treatments are presented and their possible place in the treatment toolbox is discussed.