Physiotherapy in Orthopedic Knee Injuries: Rehabilitation After Articular Cartilage Repair of the Knee

Abstract

Cartilage defects in the knee joint cause increasing pain and functional disability in orthopedic and sports health. The avascular structure of articular cartilage provides a prolonged healing response, and therefore, because of insufficient healing, there is often a tendency to degeneration [1, 2]. Significant differences are seen in postoperative rehabilitation, and there should be personalization according to the lesion characteristics (size, depth, location, tissue, tissue quality), the patient (age, activity level, aims, tissue quality, lower extremity alignment, body mass index (BMI), general health and nutrition), and the surgical treatment applied (definitive procedure, tissue involvement, accompanying operations). In this section, the basic principles of rehabilitation are discussed following joint cartilage repair procedures, in addition to specific rehabilitation guidelines for debridement, chondroplasty, microfracture, osteochondral autograft transplantation (OAT), and autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) [3–5].