The injury is common in middle-aged groups of sports lovers. In order to compare the long-term efficacy and the prognosis of arthroscopic microfracture and conservative drug treatment on the knee cartilage injury, a retrospective cohort study is designed, to compare the difference of the two cohorts through 2-year and 5-year follow-ups. It is shown that the mediumterm effect of microfracture is better than the classical conservative drug treatment scheme, with the advantages of improving the joint function and the knee range of motion. The long-term results show that the microfracture can decrease the cartilage injury and the knee varus, as well as delay the time of the joint replacement. Microfracture has the clinical value, which can be recommended to treat the exercise-related knee cartilage injury.

knee cartilage injury  /  microfracture  /  bone marrow edema  /  long term efficacy  /  prognosis