Adolescent Femoral Chondral Fragment Fixation With Poly-L-Lactic Acid Chondral Darts

Large chondral injuries without attached bone are uncommon. This report describes a 14-year-old boy who had a unique stress reaction between the bone and the overlying cartilage, predominantly of the anterior lateral femoral condyle, during a week-long basketball camp, resulting in complete displacement of a 2.5 x 2.5-cm full-thickness articular cartilage lesion. There was a 6-day interval from the time of the injury to the first office appointment. Scheduling of magnetic resonance imaging and insurance approval took another week, and then surgery scheduling, including insurance approval and arranging for surgical supplies, took another week. Three weeks after the initial injury, the patient underwent diagnostic arthroscopy and open arthrotomy, and the cartilage-free fragment was returned to the donor site and fixed with poly-L-lactic acid chondral darts. Considerable delamination of the shoulders of the defect was noted on preoperative magnetic resonance imaging and at the time of surgery, suggesting an unusual prodromal stress reaction. Although there was no underlying subchondral bone on the free cartilage fragment, the injury healed. The patient had return of full knee range of motion and strength. Magnetic resonance imaging performed 3 months postoperatively showed healed cartilage. At 1 year of clinical follow-up, the patient had no clinical sequelae from the initial injury and had returned to competitive basketball. Prompt recognition of this injury pattern and subsequent surgical repair are necessary because the window of opportunity closes as fibrous healing occurs and the cartilage fragment deforms. The poly-L-lactic acid chondral dart system was instrumental to the success of this case.