What did I do?
In my PhD thesis, I aimed to study the aetiology, incidence and phenotypes of (osteo)chondral lesions ((O)CLs) of the ankle (intraoperative image in figure 1). There was a particular focus on the management of osteochondral lesions of the ankle that have failed previous surgical therapy. The overarching goal was to lay the groundwork for an evidence-based, personalised approach to prevent and treat the entire continuum of (osteo)chondral lesions of the ankle on the whole spectrum of the cartilage cascade.
Figure 1
Osteochondral lesion of the talus undergoing bone marrow stimulation.
Why did I do it?
Ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries in the active population and can result in (osteo)chondral damage.1 Treatment of these lesions remains challenging. Depending on the patient’s symptoms and wishes, as well as imaging findings and other individual characteristics, a shared decision-making process is used to determine the most appropriate treatment strategy for the individual patient. Despite recent advances in knowledge on treatment and aetiology, several knowledge gaps remain. First, there is limited understanding of the different morphological subtypes of ((O)CLs), and the incidence of such …
