Miniimplantate bei fokalen chondralen und osteochondralen Defekten am Femur

The use of mini-implants is an intermediate solution for cell-based treatment of focal cartilage lesions in early age and unicondylar knee arthroplasty (UKA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in older age, when the disease has already led to advanced osteoarthritis of the knee joint.

The aim of this review to provide a comparative overview of three commonly used mini-implantation systems (HemiCap/UniCap, BioPoly and Episealer) and to summarize the clinical results and currently available expert consensus.

While there are differences between the systems in terms of material, fitting and implantation, the indications and contraindications are similar. The currently available clinical results at 2–5 years have been shown to be good for all three systems. The pain score significantly improved by over 50% across all studies. The symptoms, daily function and quality of life also significantly improved over the period. As for the revision rate, there are also quite acceptable numbers in the studies in periods of up to 12 years. The poorer international registry data available in the case of Uni/HemiCAP should be viewed in a differentiated manner.

Overall, it can be recommended to include these mini-implants in the treatment algorithm for focal chondral and osteochondral defects of the femur. Determination of the correct indications is critical in this process.