The Effectiveness of Adding Allogenic Stem Cells After Traditional Treatment of Osteochondral Lesions of the Talus

Randomized, multicentric, prospective, double-blind study: effectiveness of adding allogenic stem cells to a platelet-poor plasma scaffold after arthroscopic debridement and microfractures in patients with osteochondral lesions of the talus Osteochondral lesions of the talus (LOC), affects the ankle cartilage, which it seems to have less repair capacity than that of other joints such as the knee of the hip. The LOC can be an important source of pain and affects comparatively younger, working age and athletically active patients. Although there are several therapeutic strategies, debridement and microfractures performed arthroscopically are the most frequent procedures. After this surgery, it is expected that fibrocartilage will form that covers the osteochondral lesion. Though good results have been reported, this fibrocartilage presents histological characteristics of lower quality to those of the native articular cartilage. Based on previous studies in different joints, it is hypothesized that the augmentation treatment of osteochondral lesions of the talus with mesenchymal allogeneic stromal cells derived from the umbilical cord produces better clinical and imaging results than standard treatment with debridement and microfractures only. Therefore, the present study seeks to compare the effectiveness of traditional debridement and microfracture treatment versus adding a platelet-poor plasma (PPP) scaffold embedded in allogeneic mesenchymal stromal cells derived from the umbilical cord in patients with osteochondral lesions of the talus.