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. ACi and MACi remain familiar, established starting points. The assessment now also includes NanoACi and the tissue-specific Nano family, Structure-led STACi, ChondroFiller and Mytocel MSK, as well as ligament repair that keeps your own ACL where suitable.
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.
ACi and MACi
The established cell-based cartilage regeneration procedures and the terms many patients already know.
Why patients travel: A familiar starting point, assessed alongside the newer non-surgical and surgical RegenRepair™ routes.
RegenRepair™ and the Nano family
Seed, Soil and Signal adapted for cartilage, meniscus, tendon and ligament through NanoACi, NanoAMi, NanoATi and NanoALi.
Why patients travel: Tissue-specific, non-arthroscopic pathways developed by Professor Lee from years of regenerative practice and research.
STACi
The surgical RegenRepair™ pathway for cartilage, adding Structure before Seed, Soil and Signal.
Why patients travel: A joint-preserving route when alignment, stability or the damage pattern needs surgical correction as well as regenerative biology.
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.
Mytocel MSK
A single-session regenerative injection using living autologous micrografts prepared chair-side from the patient’s own tissue.
Why patients travel: A standalone option for earlier joint wear and the cell-rich Seed component used within NanoACi.
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.
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 and retained within the wider surgical toolkit.
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.