Microfragmented Adipose Tissue Injection (MFAT) May Be a Solution to the Rationing of Total Knee Replacement: A Prospective, Gender-Bias Mitigated, Reproducible Analysis at Two Years
In this work, Heidari et al, analysed the 24-month outcome from a cohort of 344 patients, suffering from grade 3-4 (moderate to severe) knee osteoarthritis, [many of whom were on the waiting list for total knee replacement], following a single, ultrasound-guided injection of micro-fragmented adipose tissue into the affected joint. A comparison of pre-operational and post-operational knee pain and joint functionality identified a sub-group of individuals who responded the best to treatment.
Female patients with an Oxford Knee Score of <39 showed the most pronounced improvement, although the majority of all patients benefited from the MFAT graft. These results demonstrate the multi-factorial complexities of this condition and provide evidence to support the importance of pre-assessment of clinical/biochemical and possibly genetic data; perhaps in the future creating artificial intelligence algorithms in order to stratify patients and maximise therapeutic benefits.