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Arthritis Treatment for Patients from Lublin

As part of arthritis care, PRP and SVF cell therapy for the knee, hand, shoulder and other joints — after a doctor has first reviewed your case and tests

Consultation and review of your scansFree

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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?

Inflammation of a joint is what arthritis is. Its usual signs: pain at night and at rest, morning stiffness that takes over half an hour to wear off, swelling, redness and heat over the joint. Possible causes range from autoimmune diseases — rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis — to gout, infection or a previous 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

Whether this treatment fits you is a doctor's decision, made after an examination and a scan review

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: skin inflammation over the target joint, or a fever, a cold or 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 examines the joint, reviews your X-rays, MRI or ultrasound and decides whether the procedure suits you. If you already have scans, you can send them before the visit.

Blood sample for PRP2

Blood sample for PRP

Platelet-rich plasma with growth factors is prepared later from a small amount of blood taken from your vein.

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

Centrifuging the sample separates it into layers, after which the stromal vascular fraction is isolated and mixed into the platelet-rich plasma.

Injection into the joint5

Injection into the joint

Ultrasound guidance helps position it precisely as the prepared material is injected directly into the affected joint.

Follow-up6

Follow-up

Crutches and a hospital stay are not needed. The doctor keeps in contact afterwards and monitors how the joint is responding.

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

Only material from your body — your blood and adipose tissue — and nothing synthetic or from a donor

Cell therapy (SVF) from your own adipose tissue

The stromal vascular fraction (SVF) — a blend of cells involved in repairing tissue — is isolated by processing a small sample of your adipose tissue. Mixed with your own plasma, it goes into the affected joint by injection.

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

In inflammatory arthritis it is used for its effect on local inflammation and tissue repair, once the acute flare has settled.

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

Your blood, in a small amount, provides plasma rich in platelets and growth factors; injected into the joint, it helps ease inflammation and creates better conditions for repair of the tissues.

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

It can be advised for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory arthritis, as a single element of the wider treatment plan.

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

  • KneeKneeWear of the cartilage, problems with the meniscus, pain after walking and on stairs
  • HipHipEarly hip osteoarthritis, groin pain, limited rotation
  • ShoulderShoulderWear of the joint and the tendons around it, pain on raising the arm
  • ElbowElbowPain after strain in sport or overuse, and worn surfaces inside the joint
  • Hand and wrist jointsHand and wrist jointsStiff, painful small joints in the fingers and wrist
  • AnkleAnklePain and stiffness after sprains and old injuries

Advantages

Why patients choose City Medical Centre

Treatment without surgery: our work is about keeping your own joint, not replacing it

Your own tissue

Your own tissue

Only material from your body — your blood and adipose tissue — and nothing synthetic or from a donor

No crutches

No crutches

Punctures in place of incisions, under local anaesthetic, without a long rehabilitation

Second opinion

Second opinion

Send X-rays, MRI results or reports and a doctor will assess them independently and free of charge

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 joint, the type of arthritis and the method determine the cost — 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

Choosing arthritis treatment in Lublin

Regenerative injections are not done during an active joint infection or a severe flare. In Lublin, the doctor chooses the right moment, usually once the acute inflammation has settled.

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 Lublin at the consultation.

How much does arthritis treatment cost in Lublin? The doctor names the price after confirming the type of arthritis and choosing PRP, SVF or a combination. Send a request or message us in any messenger.

Damp Novembers, dark Decembers and what a joint diary can show

Lublin has a humid continental climate. In the 1991-2020 normals, relative humidity averages 80.1% across the year. It is highest in December at 89.5% and November at 89.0%, and lowest in April at 70.5%. Winter highs hover around freezing: January averages -0.1 °C by day and -4.9 °C at night, and the record low is -33.7 °C. The city also has about 67.5 snowy days a year. December gets only 30.3 hours of sunshine, against about 263 hours in June and July.

People with inflammatory arthritis often say that cold, damp weather changes how their joints feel. Whether the weather itself drives a flare is hard to prove for any one person. A diary is the practical way to find out. If your worst mornings cluster in the damp weeks of November, that is useful. If they follow a missed medication dose or a stressful week instead, that is just as useful. The doctor can then read a pattern in your own notes rather than guess from general statements.

The reverse also matters. Spring brings the lowest humidity of the year, and July is the wettest month at 82.2 mm. Notes from a dry April and a rainy July let you compare seasons fairly. Keep the diary going through every season, not only when you feel bad. Quiet weeks matter because they show what a normal day looks like for you.

Do not treat weather as a reason to delay a consultation. The doctor first confirms the type of arthritis. PRP and SVF come in only after an acute flare has calmed, and never during a severe flare or an active joint infection. A diary from a bad stretch helps the doctor judge when that calm moment has arrived.

What to write down each day

A good entry takes a minute. Start with the signs that separate an inflamed joint from a worn one: pain at night or at rest, morning stiffness, swelling, and a joint that looks red and feels warm. The line to record is how long the morning stiffness lasts. Stiffness longer than half an hour points towards inflammation, so write the actual time instead of "bad" or "a bit better".

Add the joint involved, since the knee, hand, shoulder, elbow, hip and ankle behave differently, and the doctor selects the joint, the method and the number of injections after reviewing your scans. If several joints are affected, give each its own line.

Then note what might be connected: your medication and when you took it, any new activity, a long walk, heavy lifting, a cold or flu, and any skin irritation over the joint. A fever, a cold or flu, or skin inflammation over the joint planned for treatment are temporary reasons to postpone the procedure. Having dates for them lets the doctor see when a clear window opened.

Photos help. A swollen finger or a warm, red knee often looks different by the time you reach the consultation, so take a picture on the bad day and put the date in the file name. Keep the diary in one place, such as a notes app or a notebook photographed once a week, so it can be sent to the coordinator on WhatsApp or Telegram in a single message.

Calendar markers can make the entries easier to interpret. Lublin's yearly events, such as the Night of Culture on the first Saturday night of June, Carnaval Sztukmistrzow and the Urban Highline Festival in the last days of July, and the Jagiellonian Fair in late August, are easy dates to remember. If you spent a long evening on your feet around one of them, write down how the joint felt the next morning. Public holidays work the same way: Poland has 14 non-working days, from 1 January and Epiphany to 24, 25 and 26 December, and a routine that changes around them is worth a note too.

Hills, loess gorges and the joints that carry you

Lublin lies on the Lublin Upland, and the Bystrzyca river divides the city into two kinds of ground. The western part has varied relief and loess gorges, while the eastern part is flat. The city's height above sea level runs from 163.6 m at its lowest point to 235.0 m at its highest. On a daily route, that difference shows up as slopes and steps.

For knee, hip and ankle complaints it is worth noting where the discomfort appears. Pain on a downhill stretch, after climbing a slope, or on stairs describes the joint's load more precisely than "pain when walking". The knee and hip sections of the consultation deal with just such details: wear of cartilage, meniscus trouble, pain after walks and on stairs, groin pain, limited rotation. An entry such as "morning stiffness, then eased after about an hour, worse after the slope home" gives the doctor something specific to work with.

The same logic applies at Zemborzyce Lake in the south of the city, an artificial reservoir formed by damming the Bystrzyca and used for recreation. If you walk, cycle or swim there, record how you felt that evening and next morning. Gentle movement is often part of a joint plan, and your diary may show which kind your joints tolerate.

None of this replaces the examination. It simply turns a vague complaint into one the doctor can use before your scans are even opened. And if the diary shows that most of your pain is at night or at rest rather than on slopes, that points towards inflammation rather than simple wear, which changes what the doctor asks you next.

Where the online consultation sits beside Polish public care

Poland's health system is funded by a health insurance contribution of 9% of personal income, of which 7.75% is deducted from tax and 1.25% is paid directly to NFZ. Within the range of services listed in NFZ catalogues, treatment is in most cases free for the insured patient. Services that are not in those catalogues are not financed by NFZ. Uninsured patients pay the full cost of services.

One rule is worth understanding if you are already waiting for a specialist. For a given service, a patient can be entered on a waiting list with only one provider, and the original referral has to be delivered within 14 working days of entering the list. An online consultation with City Medical Centre is a separate step. It does not put you on an NFZ list and does not take you off one, so you do not need to give up a place with a public rheumatology service to ask for an extra opinion.

That is also how the medical side should be seen. For systemic conditions such as rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis, the care is led by a rheumatologist. PRP and SVF injections do not cure these diseases. They are one possible local measure, alongside the rheumatologist's care and never instead of it. Psoriatic arthritis is a chronic disease with no complete cure at present, so the aim is long remission: keeping inflammation in check and preventing joint deformity.

If you are weighing a joint replacement and the wait is long, an independent view of your scans can be useful. The doctor will tell you honestly whether early-stage treatment is realistic or whether the joint is already damaged enough that replacement is the more sensible option. For avascular necrosis, SVF therapy is considered only at stages 1-2, and later stages usually need surgery.

Sending your files and planning the day of treatment

The coordinator will ask for your scans: X-ray, MRI or ultrasound. Add recent blood test results, any written reports, and a list of the medicines you take with the dose and timing as they appear on your boxes. Send the diary on top of that. Scans from several years ago are worth including, because the doctor can compare them with new ones to see how a joint has changed.

If you have no scans yet, tell the coordinator, who will explain what the doctor is likely to need. Messages are answered round the clock on WhatsApp and Telegram, which includes public holidays and the dark weeks around Christmas.

After the review, the doctor decides whether treatment without surgery suits you. If it does, the steps are: a small blood sample for PRP, then roughly 30 ml of adipose tissue taken under local anaesthetic through a single puncture on the abdomen or the inner thigh, with no stitches. The sample is spun in a centrifuge, the stromal vascular fraction is isolated and combined with the 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.

Plan the week afterwards with a realistic outlook. The joint may ache a little more in the first week, which is an expected reaction. Pain usually eases by about a month, mobility and activity improve at about three months, and the full effect develops by about six months. How long it lasts differs from person to person, and nobody can promise a fixed result. Keep the diary going after the procedure, because the doctor stays in touch and follows how the joint responds.

Does a cold winter in Lublin make inflammatory arthritis worse?

There is no single answer for everyone. Winter in the city is cold and damp: January highs average -0.1 °C, December humidity is about 89.5%, and December has only 30.3 hours of sunshine. Some people feel their joints worse in such weather, and others see no link. A diary of morning stiffness, swelling and medication, kept through all seasons, shows whether a weather pattern exists for you, and the doctor can discuss it at the consultation.

How long should my morning stiffness last before I mention it?

Mention it whenever it is there. The text of the consultation describes stiffness longer than half an hour as a typical sign of an inflamed joint, so the useful thing is to write down the real duration each morning. Add night pain, swelling, and redness or warmth over the joint, as these together help the doctor tell inflammation from simple wear.

Can I ask for an online opinion while I am on an NFZ waiting list for a rheumatologist?

Yes. The NFZ rule limits a patient to one provider's waiting list for a given service, but an online consultation with us is not an NFZ list entry and does not affect your place. The doctor reviews your scans and says whether injections might suit you. Your rheumatologist continues to lead the care of any systemic disease.

Will NFZ pay for PRP or SVF?

NFZ finances services listed in its catalogues, and services outside them are not financed. The consultation and the treatment plan come from the doctor, and the coordinator can explain the next steps once your case has been reviewed. Do not assume either way before you have asked.

Does the hilly west of the city matter for knee or hip pain?

It can help to describe your pain. Lublin's west has varied relief and loess gorges, while the east is flat, and heights range from 163.6 m to 235.0 m. Noting whether pain comes on a slope, on stairs or after a flat walk tells the doctor more about the load on the joint than a general complaint does.

Can I contact the coordinator on a public holiday?

Yes. Coordinators answer on WhatsApp and Telegram round the clock, including the 14 public non-working days in Poland such as Easter, 1 May, 1 November and 24-26 December. A consultation can be arranged around them.

When would the doctor postpone treatment even if my scans look suitable?

The doctor postpones it during a severe flare, an active joint infection, a fever, a cold or flu, or skin inflammation over the joint. It is also not done in pregnancy, cancer or blood clotting disorders. For inflammatory arthritis, SVF is applied after the acute flare has calmed. A dated diary lets the doctor see when that has happened.