| Variable |
Comment |
Score |
| Tissue Morphology (Ti) |
Mostly hyaline cartilage |
4 |
| |
Mostly fibrocartilage |
3 |
| |
Mostly non-cartilage |
2 |
| |
Exclusively non-cartilage |
1 |
| Matrix staining (Matx) |
None |
1 |
| |
Slight |
2 |
| |
Moderate |
3 |
| |
Strong |
4 |
| Structural integrity (Stru) |
Severe disintegration |
1 |
| |
Cysts or disruption |
2 |
| |
Beginning of columnar organization of chrondocytes |
4 |
| |
Normal, similar to healthy mature cartilage |
5 |
| Chondrocyte clustering in implant (Clus) |
25-100% of the cells clustered |
1 |
| |
<25% of the cells clustered |
2 |
| |
No clusters |
3 |
| Intactness of the calcified layer, formation of tidemark (Tide) |
<25% of the calcified layer intact |
1 |
| |
25-49% of the calcified layer intact |
2 |
| |
50-75% of the calcified layer intact |
3 |
| |
76-90% of the calcified layer intact |
4 |
| |
Complete intactness of the calcified cartilage layer |
5 |
| Subchondral bone formation (Bform) |
No formation |
1 |
| |
Slight |
2 |
| |
Strong |
3 |
| Histological appraisal of surface architecture (SurfH) |
Severe fibrillation of disruption |
1 |
| |
Moderate fibrillation or irregularity |
2 |
| |
Slight fibrillation or irregularity |
3 |
| |
Normal |
4 |
| Histological appraisal defect filling (FilH) |
<25% |
1 |
| |
26-50% |
2 |
| |
51-75% |
3 |
| |
76-90% |
4 |
| |
91-110% |
5 |
| Lateral integration of implanted material (Latl) |
Not bonded |
1 |
| |
Bonded at one hand/partially both ends |
2 |
| |
Bonded at both sides |
3 |
| Basal integration of implanted material (Basl) |
<50% |
1 |
| |
50-70% |
2 |
| |
70-90% |
3 |
| |
91-100% |
4 |
| Inflammation (InfH) |
No inflammation |
1 |
| |
Slight inflammation |
3 |
| |
Strong inflammation |
5 |
| Maximum total score |
|
45 |
