Bangalore: Mangalorean Doc in UK Develops Quick Cure for Knee Pain

Bangalore, Oct 10 (Bangalore Mirror): Suffering from severe pain in the knee? If it is due to a damaged cartilage, this Mangalore-born doctor in UK has a technique that can put the smile back on your face in six weeks. Surprised? Well, he has used the method to cure over 200 patients in UK.

Cartilage is the flexible tissue between joints which prevents the bones from rubbing against each other. Any damage to this causes wear and tear to the bones, leading to severe pain and difficulty in movement of the joint. If left untreated, it leads to arthritis, warranting cartilage repair or knee replacement surgery. It is very difficult and expensive to repair the cartilage as it involves a long process and multiple surgeries.

However, a method developed three years ago by Dr Anantha Ram Shetty a knee specialist and a senior lecturer at Kings College, London, in association with Prof Peter Kim from South Korea, has done away with tedious cartilage repair surgeries, giving hopes to millions afflicted by knee problems.

Christened Autologous Collagen Induced Chondrogenesis (ACIC), the process uses stem cells taken from the patient’s body and a specially developed gel to grow back the damaged cartilage within the body.

So far, they have used the technique to cure more than 200 patients in the UK.

The method was used for the first time on a patient in India when Dr Shetty visited the P D Hinduja Sindhi Hospital in the city recently. He was part of a four-member visiting team performing hip replacement, knee replacement and cartilage repair surgeries.

“The two-stage cartilage repair operation is expensive, invasive and the recovery time is much longer. However, with this new technique, we can repair the cartilage through a minimally invasive procedure.

A hole is drilled on the knee and a special gel is applied. The gel traps the stem cells and induces them to grow, thus repairing the cartilage within the body,” Dr Shetty said.

After the procedure, which takes less than one hour, patients will have to apply less weight on the affected leg for six weeks, after which they can walk normally and even start indulging in sports activities after a year, he added.

“I visit India once in every three to four months to train more people on this procedure,” said Dr Shetty, who is setting up a research laboratory in Mangalore.
 

What is acis?

In this procedure, stem cells taken from the patient’s body are mixed with a collagen gel called CartiFill to make a paste.
 
It is then smeared on to the damaged cartilage through a small hole drilled into the knee. The gel holds the stem cells against the bone to form new cartilage.

The old method of cartilage repair, Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI), involves a two-stage procedure. At first, a surgery is done to take out a part of the damaged cartilage from the patient’s knee and then it is grown outside.
 
The second stage involves another surgery in which the new-grown cartilage is fixed inside the knee.