Stem cell therapy to treat knee injuries
Dr Andrew Dutton explains how stem cell therapy is used to treat knee injuries, including arthritis of the knee
There's a great deal of interest in stem cell therapy, which is now offered by many practitioners in various countries, says Dr Dutton. However, patients need to exercise extreme caution.
Firstly, establishing the credibility of the centre is important. The easiest and quickest way to do that is to see if the doctors have published any research or work in stem cell therapy in an international journal. That's the easiest way to ensure the treatment you're getting is exactly what the doctors have promised.
The first step of the process usually involves an MRI to establish the degree of cartilage injury. Secondly, the age of the patient must be less than 55 because we use bone marrow-derived adult stem cells. This means that if you are 70 then your stem cells are 70 as well, and studies have shown that patients younger than 55 experience better results than older ones.
If your age is less than 55, the alignment of the knee is neutral and the damage to the cartilage is fairly localised, then you may be a candidate for stem cell therapy.
The first stage of the treatment involves keyhole surgery – arthroscopy – where surgeons smooth down the cartilage and then drill small little holes into the marrow, into the damaged area of the cartilage. They then place a needle into the pelvic bone and aspirate the bone marrow, from which stem cells can be isolated and replicated in the laboratory. That takes about three weeks. Finally, the replicated stem cells are injected into the patient's knee.
While it is still under research, most of the patients treated by Dr Dutton - between 80 and 90 percent - have, so far, experienced fairly positive results in the short term. However, researchers still need to gather more data about long-term outcomes.
Dr Andrew Quoc Dutton is a USA fellowship-trained consultant orthopaedic surgeon with subspecialty interests in keyhole and sports surgery, knee and hip replacements, cartilage regeneration and stem cell therapeutics in orthopaedics. He is in private practice at SMG Orthopaedics and can be contacted at +65 6887 5000.
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