International patients · Why London
Why patients cross borders for London Cartilage Clinic
It comes down to two things: options you may not have at home, and the surgeon delivering them. Never that the clinic is faster.
Reviewed byProfessor Paul Lee MBBch, FRCS (Tr & Orth), PhDCartilage and joint preservation expertiseExclusivity
Options that are not routinely offered everywhere
Many patients arrive having been offered a joint replacement, told they were too young, or offered only a surgical repair ruled out by their age or the size of the damage. London Cartilage Clinic assesses whether a joint-preserving option is suitable first: cartilage repair and regeneration that aims to rebuild rather than replace the joint, and ligament repair that keeps your own ACL.
Some of these options are offered at only a small number of centres, and for a given patient may be available at ages or defect sizes ruled out elsewhere. That is the honest reason to travel: more options, assessed properly, not a shorter wait.
Authority
A surgeon chosen from a handful of world specialists
International patients are usually choosing between a small number of world specialists, so provider confidence matters more than any single treatment. Professor Paul Lee is an internationally published cartilage and joint-preservation specialist with a PhD in medical engineering, and he leads an ICRS teaching centre for cartilage regeneration.
Your consultation, your treatment and your follow-up are all with Professor Lee. You can read more about his standing on the pages that name him, linked below.
Available here
The treatments patients travel for
The joint-preserving options that draw patients to London, what each one does and why it is worth the trip. Every row links to the full treatment page.
ChondroFiller
A collagen scaffold, made by Meidrix Biomedicals GmbH, that supports cartilage regeneration, delivered by injection.
Why patients travel: London Cartilage Clinic was the first UK clinic to offer ChondroFiller as an injection.
Liquid Cartilage
A keyhole procedure combining a ChondroFiller scaffold with medicinal signalling cells in one operation.
Why patients travel: A proprietary technique developed by Professor Lee, not offered as a package elsewhere.
STACi
Single-stage scaffold-based cartilage regeneration surgery for focal damage.
Why patients travel: A modern evolution of ACi and MACi, offered at only a handful of centres.
ACi and MACi
The established two-stage cell-based cartilage regeneration procedures.
Why patients travel: Explained honestly and assessed alongside the single-stage route.
ACL repair
Repair that preserves your own torn ligament instead of replacing it with a graft.
Why patients travel: An option many centres do not offer, when the repair window is still open.
Arthrosamid
A single hydrogel injection that cushions a knee affected by osteoarthritis.
Why patients travel: Delivered under the clinic’s published protocol by an experienced team.
Authority
The surgeon delivering every option
International patients are usually choosing between a small number of world specialists, so the surgeon matters more than any single treatment. Your consultation, your treatment and your follow-up are all with Professor Paul Lee.
- Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and medical engineer, PhD
- Internationally published in cartilage repair and joint preservation, cited over 1,000 times
- Lead of an ICRS teaching centre for cartilage regeneration
- Joint-replacement outcomes recorded in the National Joint Registry, within the expected range
- Member of the British Association for Surgery of the Knee (BASK)
Discuss your options with Professor Lee
A discovery call is the quickest way to find out whether a joint-preserving option is worth exploring for you. Or arrange a virtual consultation with Professor Lee from home.