Patients with cartilage lesions on the weightbearing surface of the ankle joint often experience pain and swelling.

The Stone Clinic's articluar cartilage stem cell paste grafting technique, which has been used extensively in the knee joint, has also proven successful in the ankle joint.

Articular cartilage and bone is harvested, typically from the distal tibia, and smashed into a paste. The paste is then impacted into the defect in order to re-grow articular cartilage repair tissue at the site of the arthritis or lesion. This arthroscopic technique is performed as an outpatient procedure. It is followed with a month of a continuous passive motion (CPM) machine use and the patient is non-weight bearing with a careful physical therapy program on a daily basis.

Patients are often rehabilitated in a swimming pool and on a bicycle in order to increase their motion. The results of the last fifteen years of performing articular cartilage paste grafting to the ankle joint have been quite satisfactory.