The Cartilage Autograft Implantation System (CAIS™) is a relatively new surgical treatment for cartilage damage in the knee. The procedure requires the surgeon to remove a small sample of healthy cartilage from either a non-weight or low-weight bearing area of the knee being operated on, and then break up the cartilage and combine it with an absorbable material on which cells can grow. This material, called a scaffold, is implanted at the damaged site to promote healing. All the steps involved are performed during a single procedure.

University Orthopaedic Associates’ Dr. Timothy Hosea, a specialist in sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery, collaborated on a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of CAIS™ as compared to microfracture, the standard surgical approach for damaged knee cartilage. Dr. Hosea and the research team, studied 29 patients between 18 and 55 years of age, randomly assigning the participants to either a CAIS™ or microfracture group. They followed the patients’ progress for two years using several standardized assessment tools and MRI imaging. Their results, published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine (http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/39/6/1170.abstract), found that CAIS™ “is a safe, feasible and effective method that may improve long-term clinical outcomes” for patients with damaged cartilage in the knee.