Treatment of Cartilage Lesions in Flanders Today

The hypothesis of this study is to investigate whether surgical intervention is necessary for patients who suffer from cartilage lesions of the knee, or whether this surgical intervention can be avoided or postponed by using conservative treatment options such as physiotherapy, nutrition supplements, intra-articular injections, bracing. Forty patients suffering from cartilage lesions in their knee joint will be selected preoperatively. All these patients fulfil certain inclusion- and exclusion criteria. They will be asked to respond to 3 different questionnaires. These questionnaires include the visual analogue scale to evaluate pain (VAS), the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score or KOOS and the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) form to evaluate the effect of their cartilage lesion on activities in daily life. Six months later +/- 20 patients will have had surgery and +/- 20 patients will have had conservative treatment, both groups of patients will be asked to respond again to the 3 different questionnaires. The outcome of the results will tell us more of the evolution both between groups and in each group separately.