Evidence / Sources / E2
Ebert JR et al. An accelerated 6-week return to full weight bearing after MACI results in good clinical outcomes to 5 years. KSSTA 2021
What it can tell you
The five-year interim of the accelerated weight-bearing RCT: the 6-week return to full weight held up against the 8-week arm at five years, before E1 extended it to ten.
What it cannot
Anything beyond the same small femoral condyle cohort — same 35 patients, same exclusions, same silence on patellofemoral lesions.
Everything on this site that leans on E2 — 10 claims
Stage III · Loading [tibiofemoral]“Tibiofemoral readers in this window are still progressing off crutches toward full weight — the studied protocols reached full weight-bearing between 6 and 9 weeks (the accelerated…”Program · Stage II (tibiofemoral)“Weight-bearing, the bottom of the ladder — An electronic bathroom scale is the published teaching method: load the leg on the scale until the number matches, and remember the feel.…”Program · Stage III (tibiofemoral)“Weight-bearing, up the ladder — A bathroom scale is the published method for hitting a prescribed percentage: load the leg on the scale until the number matches, and remember the f…”Exercise Library · The weight-bearing ladder“Weight-bearing progression is the only rehabilitation variable randomized in cartilage repair: seven publications representing three unique patient samples and 136 patients, all fe…”Exercise Library · The weight-bearing ladder“An accelerated arm reaching full weight-bearing at 6 weeks matched an 8-week arm on every patient-reported and functional outcome to 10 years, with graft signal intensity on MRI fa…”Week ruler · week 6 (tibiofemoral)“The faster of the two randomized schedules reaches full weight here, and matched the slower one on every clinical measure out to ten years. It is the fastest schedule anyone has te…”Week ruler · week 8 (tibiofemoral)“The slower randomized schedule arrives here, and the canonical protocol puts full weight indoors at the same week on surgeon clearance. Two sources, one week, arrived at independen…”Hard limits · stage 2 (tibiofemoral)“Full weight is a clearance, not a date”Why this · Why weight is the one variable anybody actually tested“The randomized rehabilitation evidence in this field is three unique patient samples totalling 136 patients, every one of them a femoral condyle lesion, and all three asked essenti…”Why this · Why faster was never worse — and why six weeks is still the floor“An accelerated arm reaching full weight-bearing at six weeks matched a conservative arm on every clinical measure out to ten years, and its repair tissue scored slightly better on …”
Read it like a sceptic
Interim of the same trial as E1, not independent replication — citing both is one cohort speaking twice.
Population
MACI, femoral condyle
Selection policy
Sources enter the registry through docs/research — the evidence table records design, population, and size for every entry, and pages cannot cite anything outside it.