15 years ago, John, a middle-aged Yorkshireman, underwent an arthroscopy (keyhole surgery) on his right knee, which after becoming infected, triggered osteoarthritis. He found himself increasingly relying on his left knee and this eventually became arthritic too. John wanted to recover the mobility and flexibility in both knees and reduce the pain.

Searching for treatments, John’s wife discovered an article on stem cell therapy for knee joints. The couple were keen to investigate this treatment further to see if it would be suitable for John, being less invasive than surgery. A Google search led them to the Regenerative Clinic and Professor Adrian Wilson.

The X-rays showed that the osteoarthritis in John’s knees was too advanced for stem cell treatment, so Professor Wilson recommended bilateral knee replacement. John and his wife were impressed with Professor Wilson’s professionalism and “his willingness to look at other options before recommending surgery” and they quickly realised that his sole focus was achieving the best possible outcome for John’s knee problem. So, after further discussion, John decided to follow Professor Wilson’s recommendation and visited his GP to obtain a referral.

Professor Wilson explains the background to choosing to replace both John’s knees at the same time: “Doing double knee replacement surgery in the UK is very uncommon. One of the reasons for this is you need the right kind of team to allow you to do to total knee replacement at the same time. Working with Mr Raghbir Khakha, who is a fellow consultant specialist and the team that we built together at The Wellington Hospital has made this straightforward and very reproducible.”

He continues: “Bilateral simultaneous total knee replacement commonplace in countries such as Australia and having seen this first hand through my fellowship earlier in my career, it’s always been my hope that I can emulate and reproduce this within my practice. Working with Raghbir has allowed me to do that.”

Post-surgery, John now has the increased mobility and flexibility he’d hoped for and says that the operation has given him ‘a new lease of life’. His advice to others in his situation is to: “Make sure you take all the advice from the professionals and do all the exercises pre- and post op. Realise that you will have to put in a lot of hard work to get the full benefit. Positive attitudes bring positive results.”

John cannot speak highly enough of Professor Wilson and his team. “The team surrounding me at the Wellington were all completely amazing. I have nothing but the highest praise for all of them and would no hesitation in recommending them. We are so happy that we made the decision we did.”

Professor Wilson concludes: “I’m just so glad that John was able to benefit from our team approach to his bilateral arthritic knees. It was a pleasure to treat and I’m glad delighted he’s doing so well.”