Extended Abstracts

Abstract

The soccer athlete has a greater incidence of overuse and acute knee injuries and as a consequence is at most risk for chondropenia and osteoarthritis. Chondropenia conceptually defines the complex nature of the multivariable processes over time including acute and chronic injury, modulators and the aging process. The role of the Sports Medicine team is to prevent injury, restore the joint and ultimately return the athlete to sport while preventing Osteoarthritis. The clinical consequences of full thickness Articular Cartilage defects are pain, swelling, mechanical symptoms athletic and functional disability and osteoarthitis. In the soccer athlete it is articular cartilage that confers the highest levels of performance. It is the fact that any partial or full thickness loss results in loss of day to day resilience and a spectrum of soreness, stiffness, pain and swelling and most importantly. These injuries may be career- endingIn this group of high demand participants any increase in activity and loading beyond the articular cartilage threshold for injury, results in a clinical overuse response with the potential negative adaptive consequences of chondropenia and an increased risk of developing osteoarthritis. Lesions to articular cartilage are common acutely but are associated with ACL injuries and long-term chondropenia and Osteoarthitis. The challenge of ACL injury reduction, articular cartilage repair and regeneration and osteoarthitis prevention in the soccer athlete continues to be significant despite significant recent advances. The purpose of this lecture is to present the current concepts with respect to the Athlete's Articular Cartilage the histological, biochemical and clinical implications and contemporary treatments from a historical and an evolutionary prospective as applied during or after their competitive years.