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Message: [QUOTE="CajunHusky, post: 2727362, member: 6416"] Morgan Tuck had OATS .... Here is a discussion .... obviously the article has a negative slant and may not be completely unbiased but it is a description of procedures available (few). [URL='http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/news/greg-oden-miami-heat-portland-trailblazers-microfracture-surgery-nba-amare-stoudemire-penny-hardaway/q8kigrtngvn1pp3m8bgvdv2q']Greg Oden and the end of microfracture surgery[/URL] "... the history of microfracture, especially among NBA players, has been dotted with [B]success stories (Jason Kidd, Matt Harpring, Zach Randolph) and failures (Penny Hardaway, Jamal Mashburn, Terrell Brandon).[/B] One doctor estimates that there is a return-to-sport rate of only about 40 percent with microfracture, and a study published last year in the Orthopedic Journal of Sports showed that NBA players show significantly reduced production after the surgery. Oden said he has no regrets about getting the surgery. “Knowing what I knew at those times, how I was feeling? Yes, I did need it,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything about that, it was something that was needed at the time.” What remains problematic about the diminishing of microfracture surgery is that it is not yet clear what will replace it. When cartilage is damaged, something has to be used to fix it, and if not fibrocartilage from microfracture, then what? There is a procedure known as Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation, or ACI, in which a “patch” of cartilage cells is grown in a lab and implanted into the knee, giving patients a new layer of articular cartilage. But that process has a long recovery time, as much as 18 months. There is also the Osteochondral Autograft Transfer (OATS procedure), which involves taking cartilage from a non-weight-bearing part of the knee and using it as a patch, but that tends to only be effective for small tears. And there are the controversial but promising biologic treatments being deployed in Europe, like the Orthokine procedures undergone by Kobe Bryant in Germany several times, beginning in 2011. In that process, a patient’s blood is heated and swirled in a centrifuge, then re-injected into the knee, where it can reduce swelling and heal cartilage. There is also platelet-rich plasma therapy, which is similar to Orthokine." [/QUOTE]

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