ffox88

Hi,

I'm a 40 y old male with advanced osteochondrosis dissecans (osteochondral defect) on the anteromedial part of the talus. I'm a Canadian in Germany and will be treated here. I'm scheduled for surgery next week and am having doubts whether the procedure I will receive is the best one for me. With language sometimes a barrier, I am in dire need of a second opinion from other experts.

In short I will get autologous graft of bone tissue from the hip bone to the affected area in my talus. The defect is fairly big... it is about 1/4 of the area of the talar dome, and its depth goes halfway through the bone.

I asked why I was NOT getting mosaicplasty which should regenerate the correct type of cartilage (hyaline) instead the less useful fibrous cartilage which is generated from bone tissue. The answer I got was 1) difficulty of accessing and amount if tissue (cylinders) donor site, 2) possibility of complications at donor site, 3) in their experience this method leads anyway to mostly fibrous cartilage after a few years.
So I was wondering if this the general belief among foot experts out there.

This is really important to me as I am still very active. I could give up going back to my long distance running but I really will hope to be able to go mountain hiking, xc-skiing,etc again for another 40 years.

PLEASE answer soon as I am already signed up for this OP.

best to all

Chris