Figure 7
Persistence of drill holes at 6 month after surgery using μMRI at 9.4 T. Drill holes (+) were still identifiable 6 month after marrow stimulation. Most of them were filled with a repair tissue isointense to the cartilage repair tissue; some showing an infundibular morphology (§) when the defect extended to the subchondral bone. The repair tissue is only partially integrated with the adjacent articular cartilage. Asterisks (*) indicate extend of the cartilage defect. Axial (a,d); coronal (b,e) and sagittal planes (c,f); SGE sequence, isotropic voxel size 120 μm3. Scale bar = 4 mm.