Bone-on-Bone Arthritis Overview
When a patient is told they are "bone-on-bone," this generally means there is an area of articular cartilage, the covering on the edge of the bone, that has worn down to expose the underlying bone of the femur and that the articular cartilage of the tibia, the shin bone, has worn off articular cartilage down to the bone. Often this is a result of injury or having lost the meniscus cartilage, the fibrous shock absorber for the knee. Post-traumatic arthritis is the wearing off of the articular cartilage after injury, and osteoarthritis is similarly a version of arthritis where the articular cartilage is worn down to the bone.

Bone-on Bone Arthritis Treatment
"Bone-on-bone" does not always mean the joint needs to be artificially replaced; often the "bone-on-bone" is isolated to a portion of the knee joint. This can be repaired using a stem cell paste graft and the meniscus cartilage can be replaced using a donor meniscus allograft.  These surgical procedures are part of our Biologic Knee Replacement^SM program, and you can learn more by clicking here.