A Lanarkshire man is hoping to be saved from years of knee pain after taking part in an international transplant surgery trial.
Andrew Pollock, a father-of-two from Wishaw, has become the first patient in Lanarkshire to receive a replacement meniscus – a pad of knee cartilage that acts as a shock absorber.
The 29-year-old supermarket shift leader was at work around eight years ago when he felt his knee “pop” as he turned around.
Doctors diagnosed a tear in his meniscus, possibly caused by regularly playing football, and said he would have to undergo an operation to remove half of it.
He said: “Over the years, my knee pain gradually got worse and I was warned it was likely I’d go on to have arthritis.
“I then heard from Mr Bhattacharyya about the new trial, which involves the options of physiotherapy or surgery.
"I was initially placed in the physio group but it wasn’t helping that much so we then had another discussion about the surgery.
“He put me on the transplant list and it was only about two weeks later that the surgery was booked in and I was ready to go, which was great news.”
The operation, known as a meniscal allograft transplant, was completed five months ago at University Hospital Hairmyres in East Kilbride.
Mr Pollock said: “I wasn’t allowed to bear any weight on it and I was in a knee brace for about three months.
"I’m definitely noticing a big improvement now and I’m gradually doing more movements and activities.”
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NHS Lanarkshire is among the sites in the UK, Belgium, Australia and Canada which is recruiting patients as part of the Meteor2 trial, coordinated by Warwick University.
Meteor2 stands for "Meniscal Transplant surgery or Optimised Rehabilitation".
Until now, younger patients with a severely torn meniscus have had limited options to get back to full health.
Consultant Specialist Knee Surgeon, Mr Rahul Bhattacharyya, who carried out the procedure with colleagues Mr Oliver Bailey, from NHS Lanarkshire, Mr Simon Spencer, from NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, and scrub nurse Yvonne Jones, said it had been a "success story" for the team.
He said: “If the meniscus is not present, the amount of load that goes through the knee is significantly increased.
"That means the patient’s risk of developing arthritis in the future is higher.
“Patients like Andrew are too young to have a replacement knee so they have to live with that pain until they’re older.
“The replacement meniscus procedure involves a transplant from a deceased person, and we’ll hopefully be able to show that it delays progression of arthritis in the knee.
“The trial will do a two-year follow-up of the transplant and physio patients to assess the clinical effectiveness of the operation compared to personalised knee therapy.
“The symptoms Andrew had prior to surgery, mainly pain in the outside of his knee, are almost completely settled now.
"His swelling has gone, he’s got full range of movement back and his wounds are all well healed.
“Andrew is happy with the progress he’s made following this surgery.
"As he continues with his rehab, the goal is to get him back to doing all his normal activities.
“This is a real success story for us."
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