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Arthritis in Cordoba: When This Treatment Fits

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

A doctor decides whether the treatment suits you after examining you and reviewing your scans

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: inflamed skin above the treated joint, fever, a cold or the flu

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

The doctor checks the joint, goes through your X-rays, MRI or ultrasound and decides if the procedure suits you. If you have scans already, feel free to send them before you come.

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

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

Processing in a centrifuge4

Processing in a centrifuge

The sample is spun in a centrifuge and separates into layers. The stromal vascular fraction is isolated and mixed with the platelet-rich plasma.

Injection into the joint5

Injection into the joint

Direct injection into the affected joint under ultrasound guidance helps the prepared material land exactly where it is needed.

Follow-up6

Follow-up

You go without crutches or a hospital stay, while the doctor keeps in touch after the procedure 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

Nothing donor or synthetic — only your own blood and adipose tissue are used

Cell therapy (SVF) from your own adipose tissue

Your adipose tissue, in a small sample, is processed to isolate the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) — a combination of cells engaged in tissue repair. The affected joint then receives it by injection, together with your own plasma.

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

Once the acute flare has settled, it is used in inflammatory arthritis for its effect 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

Separated from a small volume of your blood, plasma rich in platelets and growth factors is injected into the joint to help calm inflammation and create better conditions for tissue repair.

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

As one element of the whole treatment plan, it may be recommended in rheumatoid and other 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

Small joints as well as large — the doctor reviews your scans and then chooses the joint, the method and how many injections to give

  • KneeKneePain on stairs or after walking, cartilage wear and meniscus problems
  • HipHipEarly hip osteoarthritis, groin pain, limited rotation
  • ShoulderShoulderPain as you raise the arm, plus wear of the joint and the tendons around it
  • ElbowElbowPain following overuse or sports strain, along with worn joint surfaces
  • Hand and wrist jointsHand and wrist jointsStiffness and pain in the small joints of the fingers and wrist
  • AnkleAnklePain and stiffness after sprains and old injuries

Advantages

Why patients choose City Medical Centre

Preserving your own joint, not replacing it, is the goal of our treatment without surgery

Your own tissue

Your own tissue

Nothing donor or synthetic — only your own blood and adipose tissue are used

No crutches

No crutches

Punctures instead of incisions, local anaesthetic, no long rehabilitation

Second opinion

Second opinion

Send us your X-rays, MRI or medical reports for a free, independent assessment by a doctor

Support after the procedure

Support after the procedure

We stay in touch after the procedure and follow the result, not just the day of the injection

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

The cost depends on the joint, the type of arthritis and the method, so the doctor names it after the consultation

FAQ

Joint treatment: frequently asked questions

About the conditions

More about these conditions

Other services of our clinic

What Cordoba residents ask about arthritis

SVF contains cells that can modulate the local immune response and support the repair of damaged tissue. Research is ongoing, so the doctor discusses realistic expectations with every patient in Cordoba.

No crutches and no hospital stay are needed. The puncture sites are small and covered with dressings, and the doctor stays in touch with patients in Cordoba after the procedure.

Joint inflammation that does not settle? Book a free consultation in Cordoba: the doctor reviews your case and suggests whether PRP or SVF makes sense now. The price is set individually.

Heat, damp and inflamed joints: reading Cordoba's weather with care

Cordoba lies in the Guadalquivir depression, and its seasons are sharply different. Over 1991-2020, July and August averaged highs of 37.1 and 37.0 °C, with lows of 19.1 and 19.6 °C. January was the coldest month, with a mean high of 15.2 °C and a low of 3.7 °C. The record high stands at 46.9 °C, set on 13 July 2017 and matched on 14 August 2021. The record low is −8.2 °C, from 28 January 2005. A person with inflammatory arthritis therefore lives with a very wide range of conditions across the year.

Humidity and rain also change from season to season. Relative humidity averages 38 % in July and 78 % in December. Annual precipitation is 572.9 mm over 55.1 days, and the wettest months are December (90.7 mm), November (79.2 mm) and October (78.7 mm). July is almost dry, at 0.5 mm. Many people with joint disease say that damp, cold weeks feel worse, and others say that heat makes swelling more noticeable. These are personal impressions, not rules, and a flare can come in any month for reasons that have nothing to do with the weather: an infection, a missed dose, a stressful period, a gout trigger.

That is why we suggest checking the weather idea against your own records rather than assuming it. If you write down the day's weather beside your joint symptoms for a few months, a pattern either appears or it does not. If it appears, the doctor and your rheumatologist can plan around it. If it does not, you have saved yourself needless worry about the forecast.

The same applies to sunshine. Cordoba gets about 2,990 hours of sun a year, 66 % of the possible total, with 372 hours in July and 161 in December. Long bright days make it easy to be more active, and a sudden jump in walking or gardening after a quiet winter can overload a sore knee or hand. Note such changes in your diary too, because they often explain a bad week better than the thermometer does.

A symptom diary that a doctor can use

For inflammatory arthritis, the details of how a joint behaves tell the doctor more than a single word such as "pain". The signs worth recording are the ones that separate inflammation from simple wear: pain at night or at rest, morning stiffness lasting longer than half an hour, swelling, and a joint that is red and warm. Osteoarthritis, by contrast, is cartilage wear that usually shows up as a dry crunch and an aching pain during movement. Writing down which pattern you have helps the doctor decide whether you are describing arthritis, arthrosis or both.

A practical diary does not need to be elaborate. One line a day is enough, with these items:

- which joints hurt, and whether the pain was at rest, at night or during activity;

- how many minutes the morning stiffness lasted, with a note when it passed 30;

- visible swelling, redness or warmth, ideally with a dated photo taken in the same light;

- what you took for the pain and whether it helped, and for how long;

- the weather that day and anything unusual: a long walk, a cold, a bad night's sleep, a heavy meal;

- the days when you could not do something you normally do.

Once you have several weeks of entries, mark the days that were clearly worse. A flare tends to look different from a normal ache: it is stronger, lasts longer and brings the warm, swollen joint with it. This matters for treatment timing. According to the information we work from, the doctor never acts during a severe flare or an active joint infection. For inflammatory arthritis, cell therapy (SVF) is applied only after the acute flare has calmed. A diary lets you tell the doctor exactly when your joint was calm and when it was not.

The diary also helps with the cause. Arthritis can be autoimmune, as in rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis, or it can come from gout, an infection or an old injury. Add any history of skin patches, past injuries to the joint, or sudden attacks in a single joint, because these clues point the doctor towards the type. Confirming the type comes first, and the rest of the plan follows from it.

Waiting for a specialist in Andalucía: what the national figures show

Many people with a swollen joint end up waiting before they see a specialist, so the numbers are worth knowing. At the end of 2025, the national health system reported that 84.42 out of every 1,000 people were on the waiting list for a first specialist consultation, with an average wait of 102 days. Traumatology had the longest consultation wait of any specialty, at 132 days. These are national averages, and individual experience varies a great deal.

For surgical waits, Andalucía had 199,950 patients on the structural waiting list on 31 December 2025, which is 23.51 per 1,000 inhabitants. The average wait was 173 days, against 121 days for the whole country. In Andalucía, traumatology alone had 42,247 patients waiting, with an average of 187 days. For hip and knee replacement, the national averages were 98 and 105 days, and 13.7 % and 15.9 % of patients, respectively, waited beyond the 180-day maximum.

What does this mean for someone with inflammatory arthritis? Joint replacement is rarely the first question for an inflamed joint, but long queues mean that the period between the first symptoms and a clear plan can be uncomfortable. Arthrosis is already the third most common diagnosed chronic problem among people aged 15 and over in Spain, at 14.4 %, behind high blood pressure (19.0 %) and high cholesterol (15.3 %). Low back pain stands at 13.7 %. Joint problems are common, and the system carries a heavy load.

An online consultation does not replace the public rheumatologist or the orthopaedic specialist, and it is not meant to. Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic disease treated by a rheumatologist, and PRP and SVF injections do not cure it. What the consultation offers is a free, independent look at your scans and tests, available while you wait for other appointments. It can help you decide whether regenerative injections might later suit a particular joint, and what to ask when your next appointment comes. A coordinator answers on WhatsApp and Telegram around the clock, so you can send material when it suits you.

Preparing your files for a remote review

The doctor can only judge what they can see, so the quality of what you send matters. The coordinator will ask for your imaging: X-ray, MRI or ultrasound, whichever you have. If you have the reports as well as the images, send both. Recent blood test results are useful too, including anything your rheumatologist has ordered for inflammation or autoimmune markers. If the images are on a disc or in a patient portal, ask for a digital copy, and a clear photo of each report page is fine for a first look.

Make a short list of what you take. Include medicines for the joint disease, painkillers, anything you use during flares, and any injections you have had before. Write down other conditions too, because several of them matter for this treatment. According to the information we work from, it is not suitable with 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. Telling the coordinator about a recent cold or a skin problem now saves a postponement later.

Next, choose the joints you want to discuss. The doctor selects the joint, the method and the number of injections after reviewing the scans, and this applies whether the joint is large or small: knee, hip, shoulder, elbow, the small joints of the hand and wrist, or the ankle. A short note on each joint is enough: what hurts, since when, and what you cannot do because of it.

Finally, prepare your questions. You may want to ask whether your type of arthritis is a good match, what the doctor would wait for, and how any procedure would fit alongside your current medicines. Remember that PRP is used as one part of the overall plan, and the doctor will discuss realistic expectations for your type of arthritis, since research in this field is ongoing.

Timing around a flare, and around the Cordoba calendar

Because treatment waits for calm, the calendar becomes part of planning. If you have a regular pattern of flares, the doctor may prefer a window when your joint has been quiet for some time. This is where your diary pays off: it shows when that window is likely to come.

Local life sets its own rhythm. The Feria de Nuestra Señora de la Salud takes place in the last full week of May, and the Patios Cordobeses festival, which UNESCO declared World Heritage in 2012, draws long days on foot through the city. The Universidad de Córdoba, founded in 1972 with around 21,000 enrolled students, and the Universidad Loyola Andalucía give the academic year its own busy and quiet stretches. Students, teachers and staff may find that exam periods or the start of term bring stress and disturbed sleep. The calendar should not drive medical decisions, but it is sensible to avoid scheduling a procedure just before a week when you know you will be on your feet for hours, or when you cannot rest.

Recovery also takes time to unfold, according to the information we use. In the first week the joint may ache a little more, which is an expected reaction. After about a month the pain usually eases, mobility and activity tend to improve around three months, and the full effect develops at about six months. These are averaged figures given for guidance, and how long the effect lasts differs from person to person. It depends on the stage of the condition, body weight, activity and other factors, and nobody can promise a fixed result.

The procedure itself is done in one day. Blood is taken from a vein for PRP, and for SVF about 30 ml of adipose tissue is 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. There are no crutches and no hospital stay. The doctor then keeps in touch and follows how your joint responds.

Questions people ask before sending their scans

Cordoba is a large municipality, about 1,253 km² with 324,902 inhabitants in 2024, and the metropolitan area has 354,202. Distances within it can be long, and some people live on the outskirts or in nearby towns. Working remotely means the first steps do not depend on where you live within it: the photos, scans and diary entries are what count. The consultation is free and carries no obligation to book anything.

Honesty is part of the process. The doctor will tell you if injections are not the right choice, or if replacement would be a more realistic option for a badly damaged joint. At an early stage of coxarthrosis, PRP or SVF combined with exercise therapy and physiotherapy can reduce pain and improve movement. For avascular necrosis, SVF may be considered at stages 1-2 to support blood supply to the femoral head, while at later stages surgery is usually required. Being told this early is a benefit, not a setback.

Should I avoid sending my scans in summer because of the heat in Cordoba?

No. Sending files has nothing to do with the temperature outside. What the heat can change is how you describe your symptoms. With July highs averaging 37.1 °C and humidity near 38 %, some people feel their joints differently in summer, so note it in your diary. The doctor will judge calm or flare from the signs, not from the season.

Do the wet months of October to December mean more flares?

Not necessarily. Those are the rainiest months in Cordoba, with 78.7 to 90.7 mm, and humidity reaches 78 % in December. Some people report worse joints in damp weeks, but flares also come from infections, medicines and stress. Track the weather beside your symptoms for a few months to see whether you have a pattern at all.

Public waiting times in Andalucía are long. Can an online consultation shorten them?

It does not move you up any public list. The national average wait for a first specialist consultation was 102 days at the end of 2025, with 132 days for traumatology, and the surgical wait in Andalucía averaged 173 days. What the free consultation gives you is an independent review of your scans in the meantime, and a clearer idea of what to ask your rheumatologist.

Can I use this alongside my rheumatologist's treatment?

Yes, and that is how it is meant to work. PRP and SVF are used alongside, not instead of, a rheumatologist's care for a systemic disease. They do not cure rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis. Keep taking what your rheumatologist prescribes, and tell the coordinator about every medicine so the doctor sees the full picture.

How do I document a swollen joint properly for the doctor?

Take a dated photo in daylight, at the same angle each time, and note the morning stiffness in minutes. Record redness and warmth if you feel them, and whether pain wakes you at night. Add a line about the weather and your activity. A few weeks of entries are worth more than a long description written on the day.

How should I plan around the Feria or the Patios festival?

Treat them as busy periods when you will be on your feet a lot. If a procedure is recommended, the doctor will first wait for the flare to calm. Then the coordinator can discuss timing with you so that the first week, when the joint may ache a little more, does not coincide with long days of walking or standing. Plan rest around that week.

I am a student at one of the universities. Does that change anything?

Not medically. The practical point is timing. Exam periods bring stress and little sleep, which can make symptoms harder to read, so keep the diary going through them. The consultation itself is online and free, and the coordinator answers messages at any hour, so you can send your files between classes.

Is cell therapy suitable for everyone with arthritis?

No. It is not suitable with active joint infection, a severe flare, cancer, pregnancy or a blood clotting disorder. Fever, a cold or flu, or skin inflammation over the joint are temporary reasons to wait. The doctor decides after reviewing your scans and tests, and may postpone the procedure or suggest another option.