Cartilage Repair Program                                                                                                   

Pottstown Memorial Medical Center's Cartilage Repair Program incorporates quality treatment methods for restoring damaged cartilage to prevent the onset or progression of osteoarthritis, and return patients to the highest level of function as possible.  Patients are treated at the hospital’s Center for Bone & Joint Health.

Cartilage injury is the most common source of knee pain. The cause may be secondary to injury, or may develop gradually without trauma. Areas of damage may cause pain and at time swelling; both of which make it difficult to maintain an active lifestyle. The cartilage does not regenerate once damaged, and can cause pain and mobility restrictions.

PMMC’s Cartilage Repair Program, one of the only programs of its kind in Southeastern Pennsylvania, offers patient technologies that offer options to younger patients whose only alternative previously had been to live with the pain or undergo joint replacement surgery. The treatment options utilize natural biological methods instead of replacing the cartilage with metal and plastic.

The two primary options available to patients in the program include:

• Autologous chondrocyte implantation. This technique uses a small piece of the patient’s cartilage to grow more cartilage cells. In four to 12 week, the new cartilage cells are implanted into the knee and will grow into nearly normal articular cartilage with good long-term results.
• Osteochondral replacements. Bone and tissue of a patient’s non-weight bearing portion of the knee, or that of a cadaver, are used as a replacement for the damaged bone and cartilage.