Vulnerable patients looking for treatment are signing up for “experimental” and “unproven” stem cell therapies which are being advertised as effective treatments for musculoskeletal ailments such as osteoarthritis, the Association of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeons of Malta (AOTSM) has warned.

Osteoarthritis, a common form of arthritis, can occur in one’s hands, knees, hips or spine, and can be incapacitating for sufferers. In Malta, there is currently no disease-modifying option for osteoarthritis, and the only way out is via a total joint arthroplasty with all the associated costs, complications and extensive rehabilitation.

This means people who do not have dire forms of the disease will not qualify for a total replacement, potentially leaving them seeking alternative treatments.

“It is understandable that patients, in pain, immobile and stiff, would turn to what looks like the superficially easier option of regenerative therapy,” AOTSM said. “Apart from osteoarthritis, there are an increasing number of musculoskeletal conditions that are being targeted for this type of therapy option. ”

“The AOTSM is, however, of the opinion that this mode of treatment, including stem cell interventions as is practiced currently is of unproven benefit,” they continued.

Anyone offering these treatments were doing so “with an unclear scientific basis, in most cases with an unknown mechanism of action, insufficient pre-clinical data, unconfirmed product quality with poorly characterised cell lines, inadequate information disclosures to patients and no informed consent, all of which means uncontrolled and unethical experimentation on our patients”.