Rehabilitation and Return to Play Following Osteochondral Allograft Transplantation in the Knee

Symptomatic articular cartilage lesions of the knee can be debilitating, particularly in athletic patient populations. For patients with focal articular chondral defects in the knee, fresh osteochondral allograft transplantation (OCA) has been shown to be an effective single-stage procedure, particularly for larger lesions (>2 cm2) to restore the articular surface with hyaline cartilage. Indications for OCA continue to expand as a growing body of literature suggests good to excellent long-term clinical outcomes in appropriately selected patients as both a primary and salvage cartilage restoration procedure. In this review, a thorough summation of the most current literature regarding OCA in athletes, including associations between demographic and surgical variables and the ability to return to sport, and a detailed description of the senior author's rehabilitation protocol with sport-specific considerations will be presented.