Long-term results of particulated juvenile allograft cartilage implantation: a case report with eleven-year second-look arthroscopy and review of literature

High-grade osteochondral lesions cause pain, functional limitations, and oftentimes require surgical treatment. Described operative interventions include microfracture, osteochondral autograft transfers, osteochondral allograft transplantation, autologous chondrocyte implantation, and matrix assisted autologous chondrocyte implantation. Another option for recalcitrant cartilaginous defects is particulated juvenile allograft cartilage (PJAC) implantation. Short-term studies into PJAC have yielded promising results in its capacity for hyaline or hyaline-like cartilage regeneration though the long-term outcomes of this procedure are not well understood. We present a case of PJAC implementation to the medial femoral condyle in a 15-year-old female competitive soccer player with 11-year magnetic resonance imaging and arthroscopic second-look follow-up. In addition, we performed a literature review to summarize prior published PJAC outcomes data.