Articular Cartilage Defects of the Knee ― Diagnosis and Treatment

This book reviews current knowledge on the diagnosis and treatment (surgical and non-surgical) of cartilage defects at the knee joint. In the discussion of diagnosis, the focus is primarily on imaging findings, particularly those obtained with MRI. The remainder of the book is devoted to the full range of current conservative and surgical treatments, with attention to both treatment indications and results as reported in the recent literature. In reviewing non-surgical treatment, oral and intra-articular medical management is evaluated and rehabilitation and physical therapy are also considered. The three main types of surgical technique – microfracture surgery and similar procedures, mosaicplasty and related techniques, and autologous chondrocyte transplantation – are then extensively discussed in a series of highly informative chapters. This book will be of great practical value for clinicians, assisting in daily decision making.

E. Carlos Rodriguez-Merchan gained his MD from Complutense University, Madrid, Spain in 1974 and later obtained a PhD from the same university. In 1978 Dr. Rodriguez-Merchan joined La Paz University Hospital, Madrid, as an orthopaedic surgeon, and since 1992 he has been a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in the hospital’s Service of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology as well as Chief of the Knee Unit. In 2005 he was also appointed Associate Professor of Orthopaedics at the School of Medicine, Autonomous University, Madrid. Over the past two decades Dr. Rodriguez-Merchan has been particularly dedicated to adult reconstruction of the lower limb, and above all to hip and knee arthoplasties. He is also a Consultant of the Haemophilia Centre, at La Paz University Hospital, Madrid, Spain. Haemophilia Centre has been recognised by the World Federation of Haemophilia, as an International Haemophilia Training Centre. Since 2002 he has been Deputy Editor of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, representing the Spanish Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, and from 2003 to 2009 he was Editor-in-Chief of Revista Espanola de Cirugia Ortopedica y Traumatologia. He has also been a member of the editorial board of the journal Haemophilia since 1995. Dr. Rodriguez-Merchan has previously published four books in English as well as six in Spanish, and is the author of more than 120 articles in journals indexed in PubMed.