Long-Term Patient Outcomes for Treatment of Difficult Osteochondral Lesions of the Talus with Particulated Juvenile Allograft Cartilage Implantation with and without Calcaneal Autograft

Category: Ankle; Other Introduction/ Purpose: Osteochondral lesions of the talus (OCLT) are common injuries that can be difficult to treat. To date, long-term patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) of patients with particulated juvenile allograft cartilage implantation with or without calcaneal autograft have not been compared. Methods: From 2010-2012, thirteen patients with difficult to treat OCLTs underwent arthroscopic-assisted implantation of particulated juvenile allograft cartilage (DeNovo NT®) with or without autogenous calcaneal bone grafting by a single surgeon. Calcaneal bone graft use was determined by lesion size >150 mm2 and/or deeper than 5 mm. Patients were evaluated using physical examination, patient interviews, and PROMs. Pre-operative and post-operative PROMs were compared with a Mann Whitney test. Results: When comparing patients in regards to calcaneal bone graft implantation, no difference in age, BMI, pre-operative PROMs, or follow-up was noted, however, calcaneal bone graft patients did have a significantly larger lesion size (188.5±50.9 vs. 118.7±29.4mm2 respectively; p-value=0.027). VAS and FAAM ADL scores during final follow-up improvement did not significantly differ between cohorts. The FAAM Sports score improved significantly more for the DeNovo alone group compared to the bone graft cohort (p-value=0.032). The AOFAS score improvement did not differ between cohorts (p-value=0.944), however, the SF-36 PCS improved significantly more for the DeNovo alone group compared to the bone graft cohort (p-value=0.038). No intraoperative/perioperative complications were observed with calcaneal bone grafting. Conclusion: While patients followed over the course of ~8 years after implantation of particulated juvenile allograft cartilage (DeNovo NT®) with/without autogenous calcaneal bone graft had positive post-operative PROMs, patients without calcaneal bone graft had significantly greater improvement in functional outcome scores. Whether these differences are due to graft incorporation or larger lesion size is unclear.