In the rabbit, this study confirms the incomplete spontaneous repair of articular cartilage and the chondrogenic potential of tibial periosteum-free implants, with long-term maintenance of the macroscopic, histologic and histochemical characteristics of neo-cartilage. This raises the possibility of its use as an alternative method in the repair of circumscribed osteochondral lesions in young patients.

Level IV, case series.

The purpose of this study was to compare the chondrogenic potential of free perichondrial with free periosteal grafts in the resurfacing of full-thickness defects of patellar articular cartilage in rabbits. We used adolescent New Zealand rabbits weighing between 2.4 and 3.6 kg. A 6-mm wide and 3-mm thick defect was created on the patellar articular surface. A total of 30 rabbits were randomly divided into a control group and two test groups. One test group received free perichondrial grafts (PC); the other received free periosteal grafts (PO). All the animals were killed 8 weeks after surgery. All the histological samples were scored from 0 to 17 according to a standard scoring system. Differences in the quality of the regenerated tissue were only found between the control and the test groups. There were no statistically significant histological differences between the grafted defects of the PC and the PO groups that there are not on any of the variables. The results of this study support that there are not significant differences in the quality of the repair tissue when using these two types of biological grafts.

We present the results of observations on a series of 77 flat feet treated by Viladot's surgical technique and prosthesis between 1981 and 1989. The correction was evaluated by photopodograms and radiographs. In the final evaluation, 45 cases (58.44%) were judged to have excellent results, 24 (29.87%) good results, 2 (2.59%) fair results, and 7 (9.09%) poor results.