Microfracture Surgery

Microfracture surgery has been around for many years so methods commonly used during this form of surgery has been replaced by more long lasting procedures, yet its techniques have not been forgotten, in fact, the following surgical procedures are widely used today as a part of arthroscopic knee surgery. To commence surgery, a surgeon will make an incision ¼ inch wide into a patient’s knee. Arthroscopy is then inserted through the incision to aid the surgeon during the procedure so the surgeon can see around and work on the joint (Knee Microfracture Surgery, 2016). Next, all loose or damaged cartilage is removed from the area. In a practical operation the size of the area should be less than 2 centimeters in diameter supported by healthy cartilage. New cartilage growth is promoted by enabling blood flow; an awl is used to make microfracture holes in the surrounding bone. The common amount of holes made during this surgery can range from 5 to 15. This is determined by the size of surgical area which should range between 1 and 2 centimeters in diameter. The amount of microfacture holes made to the bone is predicated on the treatment area size (Cluett, 2016).
Various imaging techniques are available to view preoperative and postoperative …show more content…
Collectively from the methods mentioned arthroscopy has recognized as the gold standard to classify, locate and palpate lesions; while MR is less invasive and offers excellent techniques to help surgeons study cartilage (Filho, 2012). Two special diagnostic tests used commonly are the Wilson test, which is a provocative measure to identify osteochondritis dissecans in the medial condoyle and arthrotomography this is a method of injecting intra-articular contrast into a joint to identify chondral lesions (Filho,