Concentrated Bone Marrow Aspirate for the Treatment of Chondral Injuries and Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A Systematic Review of Outcomes
This study talks about outcomes following the use of bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) in patients with knee osteoarthritis and cartilage defects. BMAC has emerged as an important biological tool for the orthopaedic surgeon because it is one of the few forms of delivering stem cells and growth factors currently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A total of 11 studies reporting on BMAC use were analyzed by the authors. The main finding of this review was good to excellent over-all outcomes reported with the use of BMAC for the treatment of early knee osteoarthritis and moderate focal chondral defects. All 3 studies regarding osteoarthritis and all 8 studies regarding cartilage defects reported good to excellent overall outcomes with the use of BMAC. Although a growing interest for biological alternatives of treating knee osteoarthritis and cartilage defects has been observed in the past few years, there still remains a limited number of high-quality studies. Most articles mention BMAC is a safe and effective procedure.