Cartilage Defect Treatments: With or without Cells? Mesenchymal Stem Cells or Chondrocytes? Traditional or Matrix-Assisted? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses

Table 7

Results of meta-analyses in our study.

	Number of studies	Assessment	Number of studies	Model, pooled relative risk estimates (95% CI)	Heterogeneity			Publication bias
						%		Begg’s	Egger’s
Cell-based versus cell-free	7	Excellent and good results	5	Fixed, OR,; 4.27 (2.19–8.34)	5.17	22.7	0.27	0.221	0.269
		Mean score and standard deviation	6	Random, WMD,; 10.11 (2.69–16.53)	22.93	78.2	0	1	0.953
Traditional ACI versus MACT	6	Excellent and good results	5	Fixed, OR,; 0.49 (0.30–0.82)	1.50	0	0.83	0.086	0.088
		Graft hypertrophy	4	Fixed, OR,; 2.43 (1.00–5.94)	3.94	23.8	0.27	0.734	0.241
		Frequency of reoperation	3	Fixed, OR,; 1.34 (0.53–3.37)	2.78	28.1	0.25	1	0.593

OR: odd ratio; CI: confidence interval; WMD: weighted mean difference; ACI: autologous chondrocyte implantation; MACT: matrix-assisted autologous chondrocyte transplantation.