Stem Cell Therapy

Stem cell therapy is used to treat early-stage arthritis of the hip and knee joints.

The purpose of stem cell therapy is to preserve your natural hip or knee joint for as long as possible and to potentially postpone the need for joint replacement surgery as far as possible. It is therefore an ideal situation for the younger group of patients where the need to delay a joint replacement surgery is very much needed.

Stem cells can be used to encourage regeneration of the superficial or surface layer of the damaged joint cartilage in the treatment of early arthritis of the hip and knee.

Stem cells are mainly in the bone marrow and fat. These stem cells are used for this procedure. The stem cells are separated from other tissue components and are then injected into your painful joint.

Is this a day case procedure or can it be done in the clinic as an outpatient? 

Stem Cell therapy procedure is performed in the operation theatre. Keyhole surgery of the hip or the knee joint is performed. Only a single operation is normally required. This is normally done as a day-case procedure. In some cases, patient may have to stay overnight as an in-patient. Under general anesthesia, an aspirate of your blood and/or marrow is taken with a special needle, which is then processed to harvest the stem cells. At the same time, the keyhole surgery is started to access the hip or knee joint. The joint is then prepared so that it is ready to receive the stem cells. Finally, the harvested stem cells, alongside a suitable scaffold, are injected into the joint.