Osteochondral lesions of the talus in adolescents

Osteochondral lesions of the talus range from those con - fined to the hyaline cartilage covering the articular sur - face to those involving the subchondral bone. The lesion may not be apparent on the surface of the cartilage or it may be confined to the subchondral bone without carti - lage involvement. These complex presentations often necessitates the use of computed tomography and mag - netic resonance imaging to delineate the exact nature of the lesions. It has been shown that the frequency of osteo - chondral lesions increase following repetitive ankle sprains.Although the etiology is not well understood, both traumatic and atraumatic causes are thought to be effec - tive. Nevertheless, early diagnosis and treatment of these lesions have improved considerably thanks to the devel - opments in imaging techniques. It seems that arthroscop - ic chondral reconstruction methods using autologous chondrocyte and osteochondral transplantations will gain much interest in the near future.