Professor Adrian Wilson and his team help give people back the joints that they used to have
The ability to rejuvenate tissue is much debated. To turn back the clock and repair damage, to effectively help a joint or cartilage to revive and even re-grow. But this is exactly the science that Professor Adrian Wilson and his team at The Regenerative Clinic are working with right now.
Already a leading global expert in orthopaedic surgery, Adrian Wilson was inspired by the work of Carlo Tremolada in Italy. Working closely with him he began to understand the benefits of a new technology called Lipogems for healing, pain relief and the rejuvenation of joints to restore mobility.
Travelling back and forth to Italy, Wilson became determined to bring the treatment to the UK. He could clearly envisage the benefits as an alternative to costly and more intensive orthopaedic surgeries. Where surgery was required early in a person’s life for knee problems, for instance, Lipogems could give people additional time without surgery. In the UK alone there were more than 100,000 knee replacements last year, along with about 40,000 ligament reconstructions.
Wilson knew from his experience that some people, especially older people, may be less tolerant or suitable for traditional surgeries and the rigours of general anaesthetic and recovery time. One early patient with an advanced hip issue presented with severe kidney problems. A general anaesthetic (administered for a hip replacement) would have resulted in a near certainty of daily kidney dialysis forever thereafter. Results show improvement in this 75-year-old patient whose mobility is restored, and his shoulder also received Lipogems for a less serious complaint. He continues to both work and act as a carer for his wife. He notes a significant decrease in pain for both hip and shoulder. Six months following treatment results of increased mobility are present.
As well as the practical implications of Lipogems in rejuvenating tissue, surgeons found that there was an additional benefit – and that was the decrease in pain. The Regenerative Clinic is currently creating its own data to measure outcomes of treatment, however it is reported widely and anecdotally that the treatment has an efficient and impressive impact on the reduction of pain.
Although The Regenerative Clinic has focused intensively on the orthopaedic benefits of Lipogems there are many parallel uses in aesthetic and additional conditions where there is the potential for cell rejuvenation.
Professor Wilson says: “I have seen the remarkable potential of this treatment first hand. This is a new-to-the-UK procedure with potentially incredible results for patients. It is very exciting to be at the forefront of applying this new therapy, but the real satisfaction comes in giving people back the joints that they used to have.”
How it works
The Lipogems® technology works by harnessing the inherent rejuvenating properties of a person’s own fat cells. Fat contains lots of juicy blood vessels and natural repair cells (adipose pre-cursor stem cells). The adipose pre-cursor stem cells are extracted from fat, prepared using the Lipogems technology and injected directly into the affected area (for example, hip, knee or elbow).
These prepared cells trigger a natural healing response within the body where they detect injury and attach themselves to damage. At this point they react and begin to regrow tissue.
The day case procedure takes around one hour and is much less invasive compared to traditional methods of joint replacement. Patients can return to normal activity after a day or so compared to the months of recovery associated with traditional joint replacement.
These pre-cursor stem cells release compounds that have been shown to act against bacteria and infections, reduce pain and encourage damaged tissues to repair. More than 25,000 procedures have been conducted worldwide, with no post-procedural infections recorded and a striking early success rate.
Lipogems is a quick, one-day procedure involving a multidisciplinary team including orthopaedic and plastic surgeons, an anaesthetist, a radiologist and specialist nurses.
With the patient sedated, the plastic surgeon injects a mixture of saline and local anaesthetic into tummy fat and it is left there for