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Preoperative Mental Health Has a Stronger Association with Baseline Self-Assessed Knee Scores than Defect Morphology in Patients Undergoing Cartilage Repair

Objective The purpose of this study was to assess potential correlations between the mental component summary of the Short Form–12 (SF-12 MCS), patient characteristics or lesion morphology, and preoperative self-assessed pain and function scores in patients undergoing autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI). Design A total of 290 patients underwent ACI for symptomatic cartilage lesions in the knee. One hundred and seventy-eight patients were included in this study as they completed preoperative SF-12, Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), Tegner, Lysholm, and International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) scores. Age, sex, smoker status, body mass index, Worker’s Compensation, previous surgeries, concomitant surgeries, number of defects, lesion location in the patella, and total defect size were recorded for each patient. Pearson’s correlation and multivariate regression models were used to distinguish associations between these factors and preoperative knee scores. Results The SF-12 MCS showed the strongest bivariate correlation with all KOOS subgroups (P < 0.001) (except KOOS Symptom; P = 0.557), Tegner (P = 0.005), Lysholm (P < 0.001), and IKDC scores (P < 0.001). In the multivariate regression models, the SF-12 MCS showed the strongest association with all KOOS subgroups (P < 0.001) (except KOOS Symptom; P = 0.91), Lysholm (P = 0.001), Tegner (P = 0.017), and IKDC (P < 0.001). Conclusion In patients with symptomatic cartilage defects of the knee, preoperative patient mental health has a strong association with self-assessed pain and functional knee scores. Further studies are needed to determine if preoperative mental health management can improve preoperative symptoms and postoperative outcomes.