Stem cells are a provocative topic and certainly one that I think will be called upon in the future.

Dr Hartnell was the first orthopaedic surgeon to use and study stem cells in Australia. This started back in 2010. Using MRI review and patient satisfaction survey patients were followed through six months after the procedure. Unfortunately, the stem cells did not prove to be as successful as we hoped. We noted great pain relief for the first six weeks but after that the joint unfortunately started to fail again. We are unsure of the reason for the failure of the stem cells but it is thought that the stem cells we were using were the same age as the diseased joint and so perhaps we were asking too much of the stem cell to recreate cartilage. So it’s back to the drawing board for stem cells at this point in time and at this point in time we cannot recommend it. Watch this space as I do believe it will be part of the future.