Cartilage repair surgeries are commonly used methods in orthopedic surgery. These techniques are generally applied to young patients with localized cartilage loss in the joint.

The area of cartilage loss is also a determining factor in selecting the appropriate treatment:

• For areas smaller than 1.5 cm², techniques like mosaicplasty or microfracture using a single graft may be applied.
• For cartilage damage between 1.5-4 cm², autologous chondrocyte implantation, mosaicplasty, or allograft (tissue obtained from a cadaver) can be used.
• For cartilage lesions between 4-8 cm², autologous chondrocyte implantation and allograft are the preferred options.
• For cartilage losses larger than 8 cm², allograft is the first choice.