The surgical technique and the age of the horse both influence the outcomeof mosaicplasty in a cadaver equine stifle model

Six pieces of grafts, 6.5 mm in diameter, 20 mm in length, were taken from each of 170 cadaver hindlimbs, using the cranial surface of the medial femo ral trochlea for harvesting. The age of the horses varied between 4 months and 23 years. 30 limbs under the age of 12 years were selected for transpla ntation. Three of six grafts were transplanted into the medial femoral cond yle using different combinations of tunnel depth and dilation. With ageing, a significant decline in transplantability was detected. In general, mosai cplasty cannot be recommended in horses above ii years. Based on a previous clinical case (Bodo et al., 2000), a good surface alignment was indeed ach ieved with a combination of graft length drilling and dilation in most case s. However, the occasional entrapment of cartilage debris under the graft p revented perfect alignment in the present cadaver study in 27% of the graft s transplanted in this manner. Since the protrusion of grafts never exceede d 1.5 mm, we conclude that drilling 3-5 mm deeper than graft length with gr aft length deep dilation can avoid disadvantageous protrusion of the transp lanted hyaline cartilage caps, achieving bone decompression at the same tim e.