Post Arthroscopic Mosaicoplasty of Knee Osteochondral Ulcer: MRI Assessment

Purpose: Is to assess MRI findings of articular cartilage after arthroscopic knee mosaicoplasty for benign osteochondral ulcer.Material and Methods: This study included 40 patients who underwent mosaicoplasty for osteochondral ulcer. Early postoperative MRI study and follow-up after three six months were done for all patients. Follow-up after 9-12 months were available for (n=5 patients). IBR approval were obtained.Results: Twenty two patients out of 40 (55%) showed successful clinical outcome fulfilled the MRI criteria in part (12 patients) and full criteria in (10 patients). They showed articular cartilage restoration with no signal abnormalities. Ten were fully fulfilling them while twelve had only the first two criteria mainly articular cartilage congruity. Eighteen patients (45%) with poor clinical outcome did not fulfill MRI criteria and were considered abnormal. Late follow-up showed mainly subchondral changes with cyst formation better than early study.Conclusion: MRI can be used as an effective non invasive tool for assessment of the outcome of mosaicoplasty for knee osteochondral ulcer.