Patent ID: 7427293

Claim:
A method for repairing articular cartilage in a patient, comprising: harvesting a plurality of cartilage surfaced and lower subchondral bone portioned trapezoid shaped plug grafts from a chondral area; forming the plug grafts into a plurality of trapezoid shapes having a bottom surface substantially parallel to the articular cartilage top surface wherein the lower subchondral bone sides are tapered from the articular cartilage top surface; providing the plurality of trapezoid shaped plug grafts in an array for graft selection; forming a recipient socket in a chondral area of an articular surface in need of repair; selecting one or more plug grafts from the array by applying an adhesive tape to a surface of one or more grafts to be selected; and implanting the one more trapezoid shaped plug grafts into the recipient socket for osteochondral repair of the area.