The current standard of treatment for cartilage lesions on the femoral condyle is microfracture, which is conducted by penetrating the subchondral bone below the lesion. This procedure creates a natural healing response as a result of the bleeding and clotting caused by the microfracture, restoring the lesion. BST-CarGel (Piramal Life Sciences, Bio-Orthopaedic Division), a liquid chitosan-containing polymer scaffolding, has been developed as an intra-articular injectable scaffold to aid in the stabilization of the blood clot created by microfracture. BST-CarGel does not interfere with the normal clotting process; however, it enables a prolonged healing time due to the increased stabilization of the clot within the lesion and the inhibition of clot retraction.~The RECORD trial is a multi-centre, randomized, controlled trial to assess the impact of the BST-CarGel scaffold and microfracture versus microfracture alone on short term clinical benefit as measured by loaded knee pain (single leg squat) on a visual analogue scale (3-6 months), mid-long term clinical benefit as measured by the same loaded knee pain (single leg squat) (9, 12, and 24 months) and Tegner Activity Score (TAS), International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC), and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis (KOOS) at 3, 6, 9, 12 and 24 months post-operatively. Approximately 158 participants with full-thickness grade III and IV cartilage lesions will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio to receive one of the two treatments during an arthroscopic procedure and will be followed for up to 24 months to collect outcomes.
This multi-centre randomized, controlled trial will assess the impact of BST-CarGel scaffold with microfracture versus microfracture alone on short and long term clinical benefit in patients with cartilage lesions of the femoral condyle requiring operative management.