Background: Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) is an established procedure for the treatment of cartilage damage in the knee joint. At present, it is still unclear how previous surgery influences outcome after ACI. Purpose: To evaluate the effect of previous knee surgery related or nonrelated to the treated cartilage defect on clinical outcome after ACI for knee cartilage defects. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: An overall 730 patients with ACI who underwent previous unspecific knee surgery, whether related to the defect being currently treated or not, were identified from a cohort of 5961 patients registered in the German Cartilage Registry. Propensity score matching was used to match these patients to 690 patients with analogous characteristics but without previous surgery. Subsequently, 317 patients with previously failed cartilage treatment at the defect site were identified and compared with a matched collective of 254 patients without previous cartilage treatment. In a subgroup analysis, the type of previous cartilage surgery was additionally investigated. Outcome was evaluated by Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), visual analog scale for pain, rate of reintervention, and patient satisfaction up to 36 months. A chi-square test was used to compare categorial variables and an unpaired t test to compare continuous variables. Results: Patients with previous knee surgery not related to the cartilage defect showed a lower KOOS at 6 months (68.3 vs 70.8; P = .026), while patients with previous cartilage surgery showed significantly lower KOOS values at all follow-up time points when compared with patients without any previous knee or cartilage surgery (all P < .05). A comparison of KOOS values in patients with previous therapy at the cartilage defect with ACI versus bone marrow stimulation did not show any significant differences at any follow-up. Conclusion: Previously failed cartilage treatment at the defect site represents a negative prognostic factor up to 3 years after ACI. However, this influence appears to be independent of the type of previous treatment at the defect site and applies equally to failed bone marrow stimulation as well as previous ACI. In contrast, a negative effect of previous surgery to the knee unrelated to the cartilage defect could not be shown in the 3-year follow-up.
Subjective patient satisfaction is the most relevant parameter for assessing the success of treatment after orthopaedic surgery. The aim of the present study was to correlate patient-reported outcome parameters (i.e., absolute KOOS, KOOS increase) and revision-free survival with patient’s satisfaction. Furthermore, the study aimed on the identification of pre-operative factors that are associated with patient’s satisfaction after the surgery.For the present study, 6305 consecutive patients from the German Cartilage Registry (KnorpelRegister DGOU) were analyzed. Patient characteristics and outcome were correlated with patients’ satisfaction after a follow-up of three years by Spearman correlation. P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.Mean age was 37 ± 12.5 years, 59.7% patients were male, and 40.3% female. Most patients (46.7%) were treated with an autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI). The strongest correlation of subjective satisfaction and the subscore quality of life (r = 0.682; p < 0.001) was found, whereas the post-operative increase in KOOS from the pre-operative value showed only a moderate correlation (r = 0.520; p < 0.001). There was also a significant correlation with the absolute KOOS value (r = 0.678; p < 0.001), the subscores pain (r = 0.652; p < 0.001), quality of life (r = 0.682; p < 0.001), and sports (r = 0.633; p < 0.001), whereas symptoms (r = 0.504, p < 0.001) and activities of daily life (r = 0.601; p < 0.001) showed a weaker correlation. Pain also correlated highly significant with the patient satisfaction 24 months after surgery (r = − 0.651, p < 0.001). The correlation between satisfaction after the 2nd and 3rd year (r = 0.727; p < 0.001) is stronger than correlation after six months and three years (r = 0.422, p < 0.001). All pre-operative parameters show a very weak correlation (r < 0.1).The use of standardized measuring instruments (KOOS and Pain) is a relevant outcome parameter in science and clinical practice, whereas absolute values represent satisfaction better than the individual increase. The subscores “pain,” “quality of life,” and “sports” represent satisfaction better than the subscores “symptoms” and “activity of daily life.” Early satisfaction has only a moderate predictive value for satisfaction after 3 years, which is of great practical relevance in particular for the assessment of potential treatment failures. It is remarkable to note that a revision surgery is only very mildly associated with increased dissatisfaction. Pre-operative factors are not reliable prediction factors for post-operative patient satisfaction.
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