Subchondroplasty for Bone Marrow Lesions in the Arthritic Knee Results in Pain Relief and Improvement in Function

Subchondroplasty is a relatively new joint preserving procedure, which involves the localized injection of calcium pyrophosphate bone substitute into the bone marrow lesion. The advent of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has greatly facilitated the identification of these bone marrow lesions. We investigated the clinical efficacy of subchondroplasty in the treatment of symptomatic bone marrow lesions in the knee, including knees with preexisting osteoarthritis. This study comprised of 12 patients whose knees were evaluated with standard radiographs and MRI to identify and localize the bone marrow lesions. They then underwent subchondroplasty under intraoperative radiographic guidance. Preoperative and postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scores, and Knee Injury and Arthritis Outcome Scores (KOOS) were obtained. VAS scores improved significantly from 7.5 ± 1.8 before surgery to 5.2 ± 2.7 after surgery. This further improved to 2.1 ± 2.4 at the one-year follow-up. KOOS scores improved significantly from 38.5 ± 17.0 before surgery to 73.2 ± 19.0 at the one-year follow-up. WOMAC scores improved significantly from 47.8 ± 20.5 before surgery to 14.3 ± 13.2 at the one-year follow-up. Subchondroplasty offers an effective way to treat subchondral bone marrow lesions in the arthritic knee, resulting in improvement in symptoms and early return to activity. Long-term studies are required to evaluate if these benefits can last. This is a Level II study.

Talar Avascular Necrosis After Calcium Phosphate Injection Treatment of Talar Bone Marrow Lesions: A Report of 2 Cases

CASE

We report on 2 patients who developed avascular necrosis (AVN) of the talus and poor patient outcomes after undergoing calcium phosphate injection into talar dome bone marrow lesions.

CONCLUSION

Subchondroplasty, defined as calcium phosphate injection for the treatment of articular bone marrow edema, is a recently described procedure for use in the ankle joint. In our opinion, the limited available research is of poor quality and describes equivocal improvement in patient symptoms after this procedure. Given the debilitating outcomes and extensive AVN we observed in 2 patients, we strongly advise caution in the use of this procedure in the talus.

Evaluation and Management of Subchondral Calcium Phosphate Injection Technique to Treat Bone Marrow Lesion

PURPOSE

This study aimed to compile available data in medical literature about subchondral calcium phosphate injection, comparing results obtained with this technique, as well as indications, complications, and other important factors in treatment of bone marrow lesions.

DESIGNS

A literature review using PubMed and Medline database in order to identify works with terms "subchondral calcium phosphate injection," " subchondroplasty®," "bone marrow lesion," and "knee." Eight relevant articles were found.

RESULTS

A total of 164 patients with bone marrow lesion mainly on femoral condyle and tibial plateau recovered with significant functional improvement of knee after subchondral calcium phosphate treatment. Although 25% of them still had some type of pain complaint, they also showed improvement. There were few complications reported and return to activities occurred after 3 months on average.

CONCLUSIONS

Few studies evaluate the result of using subchondral calcium phosphate injection technique. However, all presented favorable results regarding pain and improvement of knee function. In addition, within 2 years, there was a 70% reduction in conversion to total knee arthroplasty in patients with previous surgical indication who choose calcium phosphate treatment.

Surgical modalities for the management of bone marrow edema of the knee joint

Background

Bone marrow edema (BME) is a radiological term which can be found in many conditions with varied pathogenesis and histopathological images. It usually presents with pain in the affected joint and is diagnosed with MRI. Subchondroplasty (SCP) and core decompression (CD) are the surgical methods that are available to achieve pain relief and functional improvement. Both surgical methods have their own indications and are used depending on the patient's history. The aim of this literature review article is to discuss the surgical modalities for the management of bone marrow edema focusing on the knee joint. Such topic which analyzes both surgical methods for treatment of bone marrow edema of the knee joint has never been described in a review article before.

Materials and methods

For the purpose of our manuscript we thoroughly searched electronic databases such as Pubmed and Medline to acquire the appropriate material for our review paper. Only English articles were used in this review. In our study we included every article that had described the surgical management of BME of the knee by CD and SCP. In the discussion we included 18 studies (9 CD and 9 SCP) with a total number of patients equal to 397, while 206/397 had undergone surgical intervention (169 underwent SCP and 37 CD).

Results

Follow-up of 180 patients out of 206 were available for our review. A total number of 166 patients (92.2%) were successfully treated. Specifically, 29 (100%) patients were treated by CD and 137 (90.7%) by SCP. In a study, 10 patients who underwent SCP for BME secondary to advanced osteoarthritis (OA) yielded poor results. In other studies, pain persistency was observed in 2 patients, 1 patient had postoperative infection and another patient eventually underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA). 70% prevention of TKA was achieved by SCP in a study of 66 patients with BME secondary to advanced OA. Thus, a total number of 166 patients were considered as clinical success and 14 patients as clinical failure.

Conclusions

The included studies that have been published referred to the surgical methods of CD or SCP for the management of BME of the knee but none of that summarizes all current studies on both methods. Those studies seem that CD is a surgical technique that is proposed to perform in patients without findings of OA that usually fail to respond to conservative treatment. On the other hand, the option of SCP technique is carried out in patients with varied stage of OA associated with subchondral BME. Both methods aim to reduce the pain and to improve function in the setting of subchondral BME. Nevertheless it is not clear in literature which method is the best according to the criteria of the use. This literature review shows a lack of standardized guidelines with respect to diagnosis and surgical treatment.