Clinical follow-up 7-12 years after autologous chondrocyte implantation with a hydrogel scaffold (CaReS©) in knee cartilage defects.

Authors

Markus Neubauer, Ines Theiler, Johannes Neugebauer, Thomas Luksch, Dietmar Dammerer, Lukas B Moser, Thomas Klestil, Stefan Nehrer

Published in

Wiener klinische Wochenschrift. Jul 29, 2026. Epub Jul 29, 2026.

Abstract

Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) procedures have improved the treatment of chondral lesions.
To evaluate the clinical efficacy of an ACI technique utilizing a collagen 1‑based hydrogel as a 3D scaffold in mid-term to long-term follow-up.
In this study 44 patients were treated at a single, specialized center between 2006 and 2011. Of these 26 patients were included in the follow-up at a median of 12 years (SD ± 1.5 years). Of these, 12 cases of knee cartilage defects were assessed with the IKDC (International Knee Documentation Committee), ICRS (International Cartilage Regeneration & Joint Preservation Society), modified Cincinnati and TAS (Tegner Activity Scale) Scores. Another 6 of these agreed to a post-surgical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evaluation where the regenerated cartilage tissue was assessed via magnetic resonance observation of cartilage repair tissue (MOCART 2.0) score (median follow up 159.17 ± 20.9 months). Additionally, 14 patients were assessed via a telephone questionnaire assessing subjective patient satisfaction and pain on numeric rating scales (NRS) and the necessity for further surgery.
The postoperative Lysholm score was 81.69 ± 11.39 (p < 0.05), and the modified Cincinnati score was 7.38 ± 1.89 (p < 0.001). Both scores improved significantly. The post-surgical subjective IKDC score was 64.80 ± 8.46 and the post-surgical TAS score was 4.23 ± 1.30. The MOCART 2.0 was 53.33 (± 17.51). The questionnaire resulted in 12 participants with no complications and 2 requiring a second surgery. Subjective satisfaction resulted in a mean NRS of 6.3 (± 3.4) and pain with 3.6 (± 2.2).
The use of ACI utilizing a collagen 1‑based hydrogel as a 3D scaffold was shown to result in a significant improvement after a long-term follow-up of 12 (± 1.5) years with a good to moderate subjective satisfaction and low to moderate levels of pain.

PMID:
42525300
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Jul 2026.

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