Elderly volunteer for therapy trial

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March 28, 2016

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Elderly volunteer for therapy trial

By Ke Jiayun and Cai Wenjun | March 28, 2016, Monday |

Print Edition

AN innovative new therapy offers hope for elderly people with osteoarthritis.

Stem cells are being used to treat volunteer patients in a clinical trial being conducted at a local hospital.

Doctors inject patients’ own fat stem cells into their knees to regenerate joint cartilage, said Shanghai East Hospital.

The hospital is recruiting 500 volunteers aged between 50 and 70 in the Pudong New Area and those selected will receive treatment within a year. So far, about 30 volunteers have received the therapy.

Dr Yin Feng from Shanghai East’s orthopaedics department said osteoarthritis — a joint disease that results from the breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone — is common among elderly people, with 80 percent of people over 65 developing it.

People with the condition suffer from joint pain and stiffness. In the early stages, people’s knees ache when they go up and down stairs. Then the ache increases and it becomes hard for them to stand up and crouch down, and their legs become badly bent.

Traditional treatment includes weight loss, acupuncture, physiotherapy, medicines, and injecting hyaluronic acid into the joint in the early or middle stages of development.

“But these methods only scratch the surface of the disease and can never cure it,” Yin said. “Patients eventually have to have artificial knee replacement surgery.”

“Our new research aims to cure this disease without complicated surgery.”

The hospital said that patients have responded well to the treatment, but it is too early to declare it a success.

“Since the recovery is slow, we will observe patients closely and find ways to improve it,” Yin said, adding that success depends on early intervention.

Dr Liu Jie from Shanghai Changhang Hospital’s orthorpedics department said stem-cell therapy is a new and promising technology, but not all treatments have merit.

“The national health authority is strictly regulating the practice of stem-cell therapy after some private hospitals abused the technology and told patients it can be used for all kinds of diseases,” he said. “We suggest patients visit major hospitals for evaluation.”

Metro Health and Science

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Elderly volunteer for therapy trial

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