Introduction. In the treatment of various orthopedic conditions,
regenerativetherapies, including platelet rich plasma and autologous
stem-cell therapy, have recently been advancing. Knee cartilage lesions are
a debilitating disease resulting in fibrillation and subsequent degradation
which can also involve the subchondral bone and lead to the development of
osteoarthritis. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells are a heterogeneous
mixture of cells involved in cartilage formation and regenerative repair,
whereas other mesenchymal stem cells have the capacity to play a role as
immunomodulatory and trophic factors. Nowadays, stem-cell therapy is widely
used for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis and cartilage lesions. The
purpose of this study was to evaluate preliminary clinical data of treatment
of knee osteoarthritis with stem cell injection and treatment of
osteochondral lesions with stem-cell scaffold. Material and Methods. Stem
cells were obtained by concentrating the content taken with aspiration
needles from the bone marrow my means of Arthrex Angel Bone Marrow Aspirate
Concentrate centrifuge. Results. The study sample consisted of 39 patients
who were included in knee osteoarthritis treatment. Surgical implantation
was performed in 7 patients from the osteochondral group. In the first
group, an average Visual Analogue Scale pain felt before intervention
decreased statistically significantly three days after the intervention
(from 7.27 to 2.12, p?0.05) and remained 1.2 until the check-up after 3
months. The same results were achieved in the average Western Ontario and
McMaster Universities Arthritis Index score (prior to intervention = 51.5;
after 1 month = 72 and after 3 months = 76). For the second group, an average
preintervention Visual Analogue Scale pain decreased statistically
significantly three days after intervention (from 8.1 to 2.7) and remained
1.2 until the check-up after months. The same results were achieved on the
Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score pain (p?0.05). Both procedures
were proved as safe providing pain relief and function improvement of
treated knee joints.
Current trends of stem cell-based approaches for knee osteoarthritis