Microdrilling Surgery Augmented With Intra-articular Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate, Platelet-Rich Plasma, and Hyaluronic Acid: A Technique for Cartilage Repair in the Knee

The ideal treatment of large full-thickness chondral lesions in the knee, especially "kissing lesions" and osteoarthritis, has not been determined. Microdrilling surgery augmented with injections of peripheral blood stem cells and hyaluronic acid has been used to treat patients with a wide range of articular cartilage disease including patients with bipolar lesions and joint space narrowing. Excellent results in this difficult patient population have been reported, and second-look biopsy has shown repair tissue very similar to native hyaline cartilage. Because of Food and Drug Administration regulations, this technique is not currently allowed in the United States. We describe a Food and Drug Administration-compliant modification of this technique using microdrilling augmented with intra-articular bone marrow aspirate concentrate, platelet-rich plasma, and hyaluronic acid.