The Sports Docs Podcast
Sports medicine is a constantly evolving field, with hundreds of new articles published each month on the topic. This ever-growing wealth of information can make it challenging to stay updated on the newest approaches and techniques, and to know which data should actually change your practice. Join orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Catherine Logan and Dr. Ashley Bassett, as they chat about the most recent developments in sports medicine and dissect through all the noise.
On each episode of The Sports Docs podcast, the hosts will tackle a specific injury – from ACL tears to shoulder instability – and review the top research from various high-impact journals that month, including The American Journal of Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, Sports Health, Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons, and more. The Sports Docs will also be joined by experts in the field of sports medicine – orthopedic surgeons, nonoperative sports medicine specialists, athletes, physical therapists, athletic trainers and others – to provide a fresh and well-rounded perspective based on their unique experiences.
The Sports Docs – Dr. Logan & Dr. Bassett – are friends & former co-residents from the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program, who went onto esteemed sports medicine fellowships at The Steadman Clinic and The Rothman Institute, respectively. Dr. Logan practices in Denver, CO, and serves as Team Physician for Men's USA Lacrosse & as a Team Physician for U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Dr. Bassett is the director of the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at the Orthopedic Institute of New Jersey and practices across northern NJ, primarily in Morris and Sussex Counties.
Together, they will bring monthly conversations on how to care for athletes of all ages and levels of play, with a healthy mix of cutting-edge science and real-world application.
The Sports Docs Podcast
124: AAOS Annual Meeting Updates: Patellofemoral Osteochondral Allograft Transplantation
Our next AAOS 2025 Annual Meeting poster is titled Mid-term Follow-up of Patellofemoral Osteochondral Allograft Transplantation. This study was performed by Dr. Bill Bugbee and his team at the Scripps Clinic. Dr. Bugbee was a guest on our show back in November 2023. That is episode 59 and 60, if you want to go check it out. In that episode, we discussed osteochondral allograft transplantation for various cartilage defects of the knee, including medial and lateral tibiofemoral, which are the more common locations for OCA transplantation. This study focuses specifically on outcomes of OCA transplantation for patellofemoral cartilage defects.
This study identified 127 patients undergoing OCA transplantation in the patellofemoral compartment – 51 to the patella, 47 to the trochlea and 29 bipolar patella and trochlea. The most common indication was a degenerative cartilage lesion at 47%, followed by a traumatic cartilage injury at 25% and osteochondritis dissecans at 15%. All patients had a minimum follow-up of 2 years. OCA failure was defined as any reoperation that involved removal of the allograft. Patient reported outcomes were also assessed pre-op and post-op, including the IKDC score and KOOS score.
So, what did this study find? First, reoperations occurred in 39% of the knees. Rate of reoperation was not statistically significant between patella, trochlea and bipolar grafts. Second, OCA failures occurred in 16% of the knees at a median 4.4 years following the index surgery, and the most common revision procedure was arthroplasty. Although it did not reach statistical significance, trochlear grafts had a lower failure rate of 9% compared to patellar grafts at 20% and bipolar grafts at 21%.
Overall, graft survivorship at 5 and 10 years was 91% and 82%, respectively. Patients with patellar, trochlear and bipolar grafts all had significant improvement in IKDC scores and KOOS scores from preop to the latest follow-up and no statistically significant differences were observed between the groups. Overall, 77% of patients reported being satisfied with the results of the OCA transplantation with no statistically significant differences in satisfaction between the groups.
Also check out:
Episode 91: Dr. Tom DeBerardino 0n Advances in Patellofemoral Cartilage Restoration