Consultancy Corner: Revolutionary tech to fight knee arthritis

Knee cartilage regeneration is an emerging technique to treat knee arthritis and helps preserve the natural knee joint. The single stage key-hole (Arthroscopy) procedure is done by harvesting stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow in the pelvic bone and injecting it into their knee joint. The worn-out knee cartilage causing discomfort and pain is first removed by a key-hole procedure. Then the stem cells mixed with clotting gel is injected into the knee joint. These stem cells help in the growth of new cartilage. The surgery takes about an hour and a half and the patient remains in the hospital less than 48 hours totally. Spinal anaesthesia is given to make both legs numb waist down, and the patient remains awake throughout the procedure. In rare cases general anaesthesia is given.

TOSH is at the forefront of introducing single stage stemcell knee procedures, and the highly proficient team has performed over 350 successful surgeries. As awareness of regenerative therapies increases, the number of patients undergoing knee cartilage regeneration is on the rise. This treatment will substitute at least 50% knee replacement surgeries globally, in a decade. It can be performed at any age and a gap of 2-3 months needed between surgeries, for the other knee.

While knee replacement surgeries require a revision surgery after 15-20 years and pose high risk of infection and other complications since a foreign material is implanted into the body, the major advantage of stem cell knee cartilage treatment is that it is a natural way to preserve one’s knee and avoids any artificial implant in the body. The minimally invasive procedure is not painful as there is no cutting of bone or muscle.

The day care procedure ensures the patient moves the joint fully and allowed partial weight bearing walking on the operated leg, on the same day. Mild pain reliving tablets are prescribed for 5 days. The sutures can be removed after 12 days. As the new cartilage forms, pain disappears. Post 6 weeks, the patient can get back to a normal lifestyle. Post-operative physiotherapy is not required and patients can do the advised exercises on their own.

The success rate depends on the patient’s condition, age and level of knee damage. Even advanced cases are handled through this procedure after assessment of X-Rays. For curved knees, a small alignment correction procedure is additionally needed.