Stem Cell Era - Novel Knee Repair (part 2)
Dr Lee believes his method will be less traumatic for patients, saying:'It's minimally invasive, with very small holes, not a big cut, so there will be less pain and where there is less pain, patients also recover faster'
Active people in their 40s are no longer puting up with the pain and immobility caused be damaged cartilage in their knees. They are instead checking into hospitals to get their problem surgical fixed. The operation, an autologous cartilage transplant, involves harvesting a small amount of their cartilage or connective tissue, growing this in a laboratory til there are millions of cells, and then implanting this is their bad knees.
The National University Hospital (NUH) Singapore has done more than 100 such transplants since 2000. Demand for this treatment is growing, with twoor three operations done every month here.
The surgery is like having an infusion of fresh cartilage to patch up 'potholes' in the tissue, which could have come from contact sports or other injuries. The patient's pain from this problem comes from the holes leaving nerve ends in the bone exposed. Patients are always given painkiller as the first line of treatment. But if these do not work, and the person wishes to continue playing sports, an aoutologues transplant cartilage is now a viable option. Since the cartilage is harvested from the patient himself, the risk of rejection is zero. However, this is not a treatment surgeons offer older people, who mostly given total knee replacements.
Source: National University Hospital - Singapore, September 2009
Active people in their 40s are no longer puting up with the pain and immobility caused be damaged cartilage in their knees. They are instead checking into hospitals to get their problem surgical fixed. The operation, an autologous cartilage transplant, involves harvesting a small amount of their cartilage or connective tissue, growing this in a laboratory til there are millions of cells, and then implanting this is their bad knees.
The National University Hospital (NUH) Singapore has done more than 100 such transplants since 2000. Demand for this treatment is growing, with twoor three operations done every month here.
The surgery is like having an infusion of fresh cartilage to patch up 'potholes' in the tissue, which could have come from contact sports or other injuries. The patient's pain from this problem comes from the holes leaving nerve ends in the bone exposed. Patients are always given painkiller as the first line of treatment. But if these do not work, and the person wishes to continue playing sports, an aoutologues transplant cartilage is now a viable option. Since the cartilage is harvested from the patient himself, the risk of rejection is zero. However, this is not a treatment surgeons offer older people, who mostly given total knee replacements.
Source: National University Hospital - Singapore, September 2009
