Magnetic resonance imaging following cartilage repair of focal chondral lesions

Background Focal cartilage lesions are common pathologies of weight-bearing joints. Clinical presentation ranges from asymptomatic patients to severe, pain-related movement deficits. Moreover, focal chondral lesions are risk factors for the development of osteoarthritis. There are various treatment options involving both surgical and nonsurgical treatments. Musculoskeletal radiologists should be aware of the various surgical options as well as the postsurgical imaging characteristics to depict whether the encountered imaging findings reflect the normal postoperative course or are indicative of a treatment failure. Objectives We aim to describe the most common surgical procedures for the repair of focal cartilage lesions and their typical postsurgical appearance on MRI studies. Materials and methods The literature in PubMed was searched with the terms "focal articular cartilage lesions", "chondral lesions", "MOCART", "Microfracture", "Osteochondral Autograft Transfer", "mosaicplasty", "Osteochondral Allograft Transplantation", "OATS", "OCT", "Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation", "ACI", "Matrix-Assisted Chondrocyte Implantation", "Autologous Matrix-induced Chondrogenesis". Results Surgical methods for the treatment of focal cartilage lesions as well as the MR imaging features are explained.