In Japan, new knees for the old
We travel to Hiroshima to meet a surgeon revolutionising regenerative medicine.
By the age of 85, nearly half of us will suffer from cartilage damage to the knee, which can lead to chronic pain and disability. That’s because unlike other tissue, cartilage doesn’t have its own blood supply and so heals very slowly.
Professor Mitsuo Ochi, one of the world’s leading knee surgeons and a revered figure in the world of regenerative medicine, has been pioneering a new technique to repair damaged knees.
By cultivating cartilage and using magnets to guide the cartilage to the damaged area, he has been able to heal damaged cartilage.
At the moment, Professor Ochi’s technique is applicable only to relatively young knee joints but he is already working on ways to adapt the innovation for older patients suffering from osteoarthritis.
Join Dr Javid Abdelmoneim as he travels to Hiroshima, Japan, to meet the surgeon pioneering new techniques to regenerate our knees.
Professor Ochi’s magnetic research is funded by Japan’s Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED, Japan) as part of the grant programme ‘Research Project for Practical Applications of Regenerative Medicine’