To investigate the feasibility of using the pedicled patella for repaire of the superior articular surface of the medial tibial condyle, 37 lower limbs were studied by perfusion. In this series, there were 34 obsolete specimens and 3 fresh specimens of lower legs. Firstly, the vessels which supply to patella were observed by the methods of anatomy, section and casting mould. Then, the form and area of the patellar and tibial medial conylar articular surface were measured in 30 cases. The results showed: (1) the arteries supplied to patella formed a prepatellar arterial ring around patella, and the ring gave branches to patella; (2) medial inferior genicular artery and inferior patellar branches of the descending genicular arterial articular branch merge and acceed++ to prepatellar ring at inferior medial part of patella; (3) the articular surface of patella is similar to the superior articular surface of the tibial medial condyle on shape and area. It was concluded that the pedicled patella can be transposed to medial tibial condyle for repaire of the defect of the superior articular surface. The function of the knee can be reserved by this method.
In order to investigate the effect of motion on repairing articular cartilage defect following autogenous periosteal graft, sixty adult rabbits were divided randomly into three groups: out-cage motion (OCM), in-cage motion (ICM) and immobilization (IMM). A defect of the articular cartilage, 1 cm x 0.5 cm in size, was made in the patellar-groove of femur of each hind limb. Free autogenous periosteal graft from the proximal tibia was sutured on the base of the left defect, while the right limb was served as control. The animals were sacrificed at 4, 8 and 12 weeks, respectively, after operation. The regeneration of the cartilage implanted was observed through gross, histology, histochemical assay and electronic microscope. The influence of different amount of motion on the chondrogenesis from the periosteal implant was also compared. The result showed that the hyaline cartilage produced from periosteal implant could be capable to repair full-thickness of articular cartilage. From statistical study, there was significant difference between OCM and ICM groups (P lt; 0.05), ICM and IMM (P lt; 0.05) as well as OCM and IMM (P lt; 0.01). It was suggested that the periosteal graft was effective in repair of defect of articular cartilage and the amount of motion was important for chondrogenesis.