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Regenerative Arthritis Care in Bydgoszcz

Your case and test results are reviewed by a doctor before PRP and SVF cell therapy is offered as part of arthritis care for the knee, hand, shoulder and more

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Knee joint: regenerative treatment without surgery
Joint treatment without surgery. Free consultation and review of your scans

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What it is

What is arthritis
and when does this treatment fit?

Put simply, arthritis is joint inflammation. The joint may hurt at rest and at night, feel stiff each morning for more than half an hour, swell, redden and feel warm. Causes include autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis, as well as gout, infection or an old injury.

  • No surgery — an injection instead of an operation
  • Own tissue — your blood and adipose tissue
  • Ultrasound guidance for every injection
Knee joint: an injection under ultrasound guidance

Who the treatment suits

An examination and a review of your scans come first; then a doctor decides whether the treatment suits you

Suitable

A doctor reviews knee X-rays with a patient
  • Pain, crunching or stiffness in a joint
  • Painkillers only help for a short time
  • Recovery after injuries and surgery
  • You need a second opinion on your scans
  • You want to avoid or postpone joint replacement
  • Early or moderate arthrosis or arthritis
  • High load on the joints — sport or physical work

Not suitable

A doctor examines a patient's knee
  • Cancer
  • Pregnancy
  • Blood clotting disorders
  • Acute infections, including infection in or near the joint
  • Flare-up of a serious chronic illness
  • Temporary contraindications: flu, a cold or fever, and skin inflammation over the joint to be treated

Not sure the treatment is right for you?

Leave your number — the coordinator will ask for your scans (X-ray, MRI or ultrasound), and the doctor will tell you whether treatment without surgery suits you.

Find out if it suits me

What we treat

Conditions we treat

How it works

How the procedure goes: step by step

Consultation and scan review1

Consultation and scan review

First comes an examination of the joint and a look at your X-rays, MRI or ultrasound; then the doctor decides whether the procedure fits your case. Existing scans can be sent before the visit.

Blood sample for PRP2

Blood sample for PRP

A small blood sample is taken from a vein. Later, platelet-rich plasma with growth factors is prepared from this blood.

Adipose tissue sample3

Adipose tissue sample

Under local anaesthetic, a small portion of adipose tissue (about 30 ml) is taken through a puncture on the abdomen or inner thigh. No stitches are needed.

Processing in a centrifuge4

Processing in a centrifuge

A centrifuge spins the sample until it forms layers. The stromal vascular fraction is isolated from them and mixed with platelet-rich plasma.

Injection into the joint5

Injection into the joint

The affected joint receives the prepared material by direct injection under ultrasound guidance, for precise placement.

Follow-up6

Follow-up

Without crutches and without a hospital stay: after the procedure the doctor stays in touch and follows the joint's response.

Book a consultation

Call or message us — our coordinator will contact you shortly and book your consultation

A doctor talks with a patient about joint treatment
Book a consultation
A doctor talks with a patient about joint treatment

Results

After the procedure

  • Doctor talking warmly with a patient after the procedure

    1 week

    The joint may ache a little more — this is an expected reaction.

  • Doctor consulting an older patient one month after treatment

    1 month

    The pain usually eases.

  • Doctor explaining progress to a patient using a knee joint model

    ~3 months

    Mobility and activity improve.

  • Doctor and patient walking together at a follow-up visit

    ~6 months

    The full effect develops.

How long it lasts differs from person to person and depends on the stage of the condition, body weight, activity and other factors — no one can promise a fixed result.

Comparison

Methods we use

No donor material and nothing synthetic: just your own blood and adipose tissue

Cell therapy (SVF) from your own adipose tissue

To obtain the stromal vascular fraction (SVF), a mix of cells that support tissue repair, a small sample of your adipose tissue is processed. The SVF is combined with your own plasma and injected into the affected joint.

A doctor explains SVF cell therapy for the knee to a patient on a tablet

After the acute flare settles, inflammatory arthritis can be treated with it for its action on tissue repair and local inflammation.

Material
Your adipose tissue and plasma
How it is given
Into the joint, under ultrasound
Duration
The whole procedure is done in one day.

PRP — platelet-rich plasma from your own blood

It helps calm inflammation and improves conditions for tissue repair: plasma rich in platelets and growth factors, separated from a small amount of your blood and injected into the joint.

A doctor explains PRP therapy for joints to a patient on a monitor

It may form one part of the overall treatment plan in rheumatoid and other types of inflammatory arthritis.

Material
Your blood from a vein
How it is given
Into the joint, under ultrasound
Duration
The whole procedure is done in one day.

The benefits and timings shown are averaged and given for guidance: the plan and recovery depend on your joint and individual features, and the doctor confirms them at the consultation.

At the consultation the doctor will review your scans and suggest a treatment plan

Free consultation

Book a consultation

Joints

Joints we treat

The doctor looks at your scans and then chooses which joint to treat, which method to use and how many injections — for large and small joints alike

  • KneeKneeMeniscus problems, cartilage wear, and pain on the stairs and after walking
  • HipHipEarly hip osteoarthritis, groin pain, limited rotation
  • ShoulderShoulderPain when raising the arm, wear of the joint and surrounding tendons
  • ElbowElbowPain following overuse or sports strain, along with worn joint surfaces
  • Hand and wrist jointsHand and wrist jointsPain and stiffness affecting the small joints of the fingers and wrist
  • AnkleAnklePain and stiffness after sprains and old injuries

Advantages

Why patients choose City Medical Centre

Your own joint stays: we work on keeping it rather than replacing it — treatment without surgery

Your own tissue

Your own tissue

No donor material and nothing synthetic: just your own blood and adipose tissue

No crutches

No crutches

No long rehabilitation — just punctures instead of incisions and local anaesthetic

Second opinion

Second opinion

A doctor independently assesses the X-rays, MRI or reports you send — free of charge

Support after the procedure

Support after the procedure

Staying in touch after the procedure, we follow the outcome and not only the injection day

About the clinic

A clinic where you can feel at ease

Modern equipment, comfortable rooms and care for every patient

A doctor and a patient at the clinic

Contact us the way that suits you

We will answer your questions and find a convenient time for a consultation

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Request a free call

Price

Arthritis treatment prices

Since the price depends on the joint, the method and the type of arthritis, the doctor gives it after the consultation

FAQ

Joint treatment: frequently asked questions

About the conditions

More about these conditions

Other services of our clinic

Everything about joint inflammation treatment in Bydgoszcz

The causes of arthritis vary: autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis, gout, infection or an old injury. In Bydgoszcz, the doctor first confirms the type of arthritis, because treatment depends on it.

The procedure is also not done with cancer, blood clotting disorders or during a flare-up of a serious chronic illness. The doctor checks this for every patient in Bydgoszcz at the consultation.

Leave a request, and a coordinator will contact you to arrange a free consultation. The price of arthritis treatment in Bydgoszcz is explained before any procedure.

Reading a flare against a Kuyavian winter

Bydgoszcz lies at an elevation of 60 m in northern Poland, in a humid continental climate (Dfb). For the 1991-2020 period the January mean maximum is 1.1 °C and the mean minimum -3.7 °C. February runs 2.7 °C by day and -3.0 °C at night, and December 2.0 °C and -2.4 °C. Relative humidity averages 80.3% over the year, but it peaks in November at 90.5% and in December at 89.3%, while May is the driest-feeling month at 69.7%. Anyone with an inflamed joint who lives with these numbers will sooner or later ask whether the weather is behind a bad week.

The honest answer is that some patients report that damp, cold months feel worse, and others notice nothing. Neither the city's climate data nor a single conversation can settle it for you. What can settle it is your own record. If November and December in Bydgoszcz really are harder on your hands or knees, a diary will show that pattern in black and white, and your rheumatologist can weigh it. If the diary shows flares scattered randomly across the year, you have learned something equally useful.

The distinction matters for treatment planning. PRP and SVF injections are not given during a severe flare or an active joint infection. For inflammatory arthritis, cell therapy is applied after the acute flare has calmed. So the real question for the doctor is where you stand in your own cycle: is the joint hot, red and swollen right now, or has the acute phase settled? A person who can say "the last flare ended three weeks ago, and this is how the joint has felt since" gives the doctor far more to work with than one who simply says the joint hurts.

Warm months deserve a place in the record too. July is the warmest month, with a mean maximum of 24.6 °C and a minimum of 13.7 °C, and it is also the wettest at 83.4 mm. Annual precipitation is 532.3 mm, spread over 158.4 days with at least 0.1 mm. That means damp days are common in every season, so writing down a simple note on the day's weather costs you a few seconds and gives you something to compare later.

A symptom diary your rheumatologist and our doctor can both use

The symptoms that define an inflamed joint are specific, and your diary should follow them. Record pain at night or at rest, because inflammation stimulates the joint's pain receptors even when you are not moving. Record morning stiffness, and note whether it lasts longer than half an hour, as that is one of the markers separating inflammatory arthritis from simple wear. Record swelling, and whether the joint looks red and feels warm. These four signs are the ones the doctor will ask about first.

A practical format is one line per day, kept in a phone note or on paper:

- Morning stiffness: how many minutes until the joint loosened up.

- Night pain: yes or no, and whether it woke you.

- Which joints were swollen, red or warm, and on which side.

- Pain on a scale of 0 to 10 at its worst.

- Fever, a cold or flu, or any skin irritation over the joint. These are temporary reasons to postpone injections, so the doctor needs to know about them.

- What you took for pain, and whether it helped only briefly.

- The day's weather in a few words, and how much you walked.

Add a separate list of flares: the date each began, roughly when it settled, and what treatment you were taking. This list is what lets the doctor judge the timing. PRP and SVF are meant to sit alongside the care of a rheumatologist, not replace it, particularly for a systemic disease such as rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis. Your record shows the doctor whether the joint is in a calmer phase when the procedure is considered.

The diary is also useful for measuring results afterwards. The expected course after a procedure is described in averaged terms: in the first week the joint may ache a little more, which is an expected reaction; at about a month the pain usually eases; at around three months mobility and activity improve; and the full effect develops at about six months. These are guidance figures, not promises, and they depend on the stage of the condition, body weight, activity and other factors. A diary started before the procedure gives you a baseline against which "the pain usually eases" becomes something you can actually see, rather than something you half remember.

Funded care, waiting lists and what an online consultation adds

In Poland the public insurer, NFZ, finances services that appear in its catalogues of funded services. Within that range, treatment is in most cases free for the insured patient. Services that are not in the catalogues are not financed by NFZ. That is a useful frame for understanding where an online consultation about regenerative injections fits. It is an additional opinion on top of your public rheumatology care, not a replacement for the referrals and monitoring you receive through it.

The waiting-list rules are worth knowing. For a given service you may be entered on a waiting list with only one provider, and the original referral must be delivered within 14 working days of entering the list. If you are waiting for a rheumatology appointment or a scan, check these two conditions so that your place does not lapse because a paper referral arrived late. Our coordinators cannot change your place in a public queue, and they do not try to. What they can do is look at the scans and reports you already hold and tell you, through the doctor, whether regenerative treatment is a reasonable option to consider while the public pathway continues.

Bydgoszcz is the seat of Bydgoszcz County and one of two capitals of Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, with a population of about 321,100 at the end of 2025. The city has a medical college of Nicolaus Copernicus University among its institutions, so specialist care is available locally. Even so, a second opinion from someone who has no connection with your treating team is something many people want when they are choosing between continuing injections of one kind, trying another approach or postponing a joint replacement. The consultation is online and the doctor reviews your X-rays, MRI, ultrasound or blood test results. If you already have a rheumatologist, the doctor's view is meant to be shared with them rather than set against them.

One more distinction to keep clear: rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic disease treated by a rheumatologist. PRP and SVF do not cure it. Psoriatic arthritis is chronic and cannot currently be cured completely; the aim is long remission, with inflammation kept in check and joint deformity prevented. Regenerative injections are described as one possible part of the plan, to be considered once an acute flare has settled and the doctor has assessed whether they may ease local symptoms.

Getting ready for the video consultation

The doctor will not examine your joint by hand, so the preparation is mainly about information. Start with the imaging: X-rays, MRI or ultrasound reports, plus the images themselves if you can obtain them. The coordinator will ask for them, and you can send them on WhatsApp or Telegram before the call so the doctor has already reviewed them. Add recent blood test results if you have them. Then add your diary and the flare list described above.

Prepare a short medication list: what you take regularly for the arthritis, what you take only during flares, and anything you were told to stop. The doctor needs this to understand how your rheumatologist is managing the disease. Prepare also a list of conditions that make injections unsuitable, and check yourself against it honestly: cancer, pregnancy, blood clotting disorders, acute infections including infection in or near the joint, or a flare-up of a serious chronic illness. Temporary reasons to wait include a fever, a cold or flu, and any skin inflammation over the joint planned for treatment. If one applies today, say so; the doctor will postpone rather than push ahead.

It helps to choose a time when the joint is representative. If a flare has just begun, tell the coordinator, because the picture will differ from the calmer weeks. During the video call you may be asked to show the joint to the camera, to bend it and straighten it, and to point to where the pain sits. Wear clothes that let you uncover the knee, the shoulder or the hand without fuss, and have good light.

Think about calendar logistics too. Poland has 14 public non-working days, including 1 January, 6 January, Easter Sunday and Monday, 1 May, 3 May, Pentecost Sunday, Corpus Christi, 15 August, 1 November, 11 November, 24 December, and 25 and 26 December. Public clinics and laboratories are closed on those days, so if you need a fresh scan or blood tests before the consultation, plan them away from the holiday weeks. Our coordinators reply round the clock on WhatsApp and Telegram, including on public holidays, so questions do not have to wait for a working day.

If you want a procedure after the consultation, the process is as described: a blood sample for PRP, then about 30 ml of adipose tissue taken under local anaesthetic through a single puncture on the abdomen or inner thigh, with no stitches. The sample is spun in a centrifuge, the stromal vascular fraction is isolated and added to the platelet-rich plasma, and the material is injected into the joint under ultrasound guidance. The whole procedure is done in one day, with no crutches and no hospital stay.

Weight, walking routes and loading an inflamed joint

Body weight is one of the factors the doctor lists as influencing how long an effect lasts, so it is worth discussing openly. In Poland, a 2019 figure puts overweight or obesity at 58.2% of people over 18, against an EU average of about 53%. For Kujawsko-Pomorskie, a national audit office table gives 433 thousand adults with obesity and a share of 26.4% for 2022, though that chart is titled as a share of patients with overweight and obesity, so it should not be read as an exact prevalence. The point is not to alarm anyone; it is that extra weight loads the knee, hip and ankle, and doctors therefore ask about it routinely.

The terrain around you can help with measuring activity honestly. The city is compact, about 176 km², and it sits low at 60 m, so there are no steep climbs to complicate a walking log. The Brda flows about 28 km through Bydgoszcz, and the Bydgoszcz Canal crosses the western part for about 6.5 km. Mill Island in the centre exists because the Brda was dammed there. The city park, Myslecinek, covers 830 ha. A flat route of known length along the water or through the park is a convenient way to record how far you walk without pain. Write down the distance, the pace and how the knee or ankle felt that evening and the next morning.

Remember what the doctor listed for the knee: worn cartilage, meniscus trouble, and pain after walks and on stairs. For the hip, early osteoarthritis, groin pain and limited rotation. For the shoulder, wear in the joint and tendons and painful arm raising. For hand and wrist, pain and stiffness in the small joints. Ankle pain often follows sprains and old injuries. The diary gives each of these a concrete form, so you can say "the right knee hurts after about this distance" instead of "it hurts when I walk".

Finally, be realistic about limits. Where a joint is already badly damaged, replacement may be the more realistic option, and the doctor will say so after seeing your scans. In avascular necrosis, SVF therapy may be considered at early stages (1-2) to support blood supply to the femoral head and delay a joint replacement; at later stages surgery is usually required. A free scan review exists precisely so that you hear this plainly, before you decide anything.

Does Bydgoszcz's damp winter make arthritis flares more likely?

Nothing in the city's climate data answers that for an individual. November and December are the most humid months, at 90.5% and 89.3%, and January nights average -3.7 °C. Some patients feel worse in such weather and others do not. A diary that notes morning stiffness, night pain and swelling next to the day's weather will show whether you have a pattern, and the doctor can use it when judging the timing of any treatment.

Is it better to plan injections for the drier months?

The timing depends on your joint, not on the calendar. PRP and SVF are applied after an acute flare has calmed, and never during a severe flare or an active joint infection. In Bydgoszcz May is the driest-feeling month at 69.7% humidity, but if a flare is under way in May the doctor would still wait. Share your flare list at the consultation and the doctor will advise on timing.

Will NFZ pay for PRP or SVF injections?

NFZ finances services listed in its catalogues of funded services, and services not listed are not financed. The doctor will tell you during the consultation how the proposed treatment is arranged. Your public rheumatology care, referrals and monitoring continue regardless, and the online opinion is meant to complement them.

I am on an NFZ waiting list. Does an online consultation affect my place?

No. A consultation with us does not enter or remove you from any public queue. Remember the NFZ rules: you may be on a waiting list for a given service with only one provider, and the original referral has to be delivered within 14 working days of entering the list. Keep your paper referral safe and delivered on time.

Which scans should I send before the video call?

Send X-rays, MRI or ultrasound reports and images of the joint concerned, plus recent blood test results if you have them. The coordinator will ask for these on WhatsApp or Telegram, and the doctor reviews them before the call. If you have older and newer scans of the same joint, send both so that change over time can be seen.

Can I have a consultation on a public holiday in Poland?

Yes. Coordinators answer round the clock, including on 1 November, 11 November and the Christmas days. What may be harder on those dates is arranging new scans or blood tests locally, since public facilities are closed, so book those in advance if the doctor is likely to want them.

Does my weight change what the doctor will advise?

It is one of the factors that influence how long an effect lasts, along with the stage of the condition and your activity. The doctor asks about it to set realistic expectations, not to judge. Be ready to give your current weight and any recent change, and to describe how far you can walk before the joint hurts.

What should I do if I get a fever or a cold before the procedure?

Tell the coordinator at once. A fever, cold or flu, or any skin inflammation over the joint planned for treatment, are temporary reasons to postpone. The doctor will move the date until you have recovered rather than going ahead.