[Degenerative arthritis of the knee joint after allotransplantation of the joint surface without immunosuppression].

Degenerative arthritis of the knee joint after resurfacing of the knee with fresh osteochondral allograft occurs frequently and was noticed a long time ago. The main causes can be: incongruity of the joint, when the allograft slips so that its surface is out of normal line, inadequate internal fixation different methods of cartilage preservation which are lethal to cartilage, broken grafts as well as immunological reaction to the graft. The experiment was conducted on 5 dogs, i.e. 10 knees. As for operated knees, the medial tibial condyle was replaced by fresh osteochondral allograft taken from the other animal, without preservation, performing precise operative technique and rigid internal fixation. These allografts were followed-up by x-raying them and after sacrifying the animals. The following-up of the development of the degenerative process continued up to 6 months after transplantation. The obtained results point out all the attitudes concerning all the other arthroplastic procedures (such as the precise reconstruction of the joint surface and the rigid internal fixation) should be respected. In spite of this, degenerative arthritis still exists in some cases as the result of immunological reaction to the graft, the process which may start within 6 months after transplantation.