THE INFLUENCE OF COLD PLASMA ABLATION ON HUMAN AND ANIMAL KNEE JOINT CARTILAGE

Abstract

Cold plasma ablation is widely used in knee arthroscopy during past decade. We studied its influence on knee joint cartilage in a human in vitro and in dogs in vivo. Histomorphological study was performed in a human cartilage right after the exposition of CPA. In animals MRI and morphological study were performed after three months of exposition of CPA. It was shown that CPA was able to cause immediate changes of collagen in the human cartilage in vitro and also death of chondrocytes in animal in vivo after three months. The depth of necrosis of the cartilage in animal was significantly deeper the subhondral bone.

Keywords

• knee joint
• cartilage
• cold plasma ablation