The treatment of dissecting knee osteochondritis with crater-like lesion associated to intra-articular loose body can be provided by fixating the osteochondral fragment on its original site. However, there is some concern about the efficacy of this approach, since some reports have shown that the cartilage layer in osteochondral loose bodies that have been detached for a long time becomes deteriorated. We report a case where while the osteochondral loose body was detached for as long as five weeks, the fixation to the osteochondral defect was uneventful and resulted in a completely healed lesion. We concluded that, especially in cases in which the lesion involves a weight-bearing area of the knee with a detached osteochondral fragment, when the prognosis is usually worse if the fragment is discarded, potential complications of the fixation are offset by the benefits achieved by reducing the osteochondral fragment at the crater-like lesion, resulting in better joint congruence, and potentially avoiding an early joint degeneration process.
Osteochondritis dissecans; Knee injuries; Cartilage injuries; Cartilage surgery; Absorbable implants
