Fifty-nine fresh osteochondral allografts were consecutively
transplanted into the knees of fifty-eight patients. The preoperative
diagnoses were chondromalacia or degenerative arthritis of the patella,
osteochondritis dissecans, a traumatic defect or osteonecrosis of the
femoral condyle, a painful healed depressed fracture or traumatic defect of
the tibial plateau, and unicompartmental traumatic arthritis of the knee.
All of the patients had disabling pain after the failure of previous
attempts to correct the problem surgically. Thirty-nine patients (forty
knees) were available for follow-up at two to ten years after the allograft
was transplanted. Nine transplants (22.5 per cent) failed and thirty-one
(77.5 per cent) were successful. The result was rated excellent after
thirteen of the successful transplants, good after fourteen, and fair after
four. Transplantation of a fresh osteochondral allograft proved to be a
satisfactory intermediate procedure for the treatment of the disabling
conditions, except unicompartmental traumatic arthritis, in the young
patients in this series. For the patients who had unicompartmental
traumatic arthritis, the rate of success was only 30 per cent.