Effects of Intermittent Active and Passive Motion on the Healing of the Full-Thickness Articular Cartilage Defects Repaired with Free Autogeneous Periosteal Grafts

Abstract

Positive effects of the early motion on healing of the articular defects had been shown before. The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of intermittent active and passive motion on the chondrogenic potential of free autogeneous periosteal grafts for the repair of the full-thickness articular cartilage defects. A free autogeneous graft of the tibial periosteum was sutured with its cambium layer, facing into the joint to the base of a two-milimeter full-thickness defect in the femoral articular cartilage of all adolescent rabbits. The rabbits were treated postoperatively by either three weeks continuous active motion in a cage, or four hours of passive motion followed by intermittent active motion in a cage everyday during the three-week period of the study. The animals were sacriticed hree weeks postoperatively andhistological analysis was performed. The results revealed that the biological repair of the cartilage defects is possible with free autogeneous periosteal grafting under the influence both continuous active motion and intermittent active and passive motion, However, simultaneous intermittent active and passive motion stimulated healing and histological appearance of this kind of healing was better than the others.