City Medical Centre · multi-specialty surgery clinicOpen 24/7
EN
Message us on Telegram

Non-Surgical Joint Treatment in Belfast

Free scan review first, then SVF cell therapy or PRP for the knee, hip, shoulder or other joints if they suit you

Consultation and review of your scansFree

Message us on WhatsApp

Free online consultation · Reply within 15 minutes

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

Message our coordinator

Free online consultation · Reply within 15 minutes

Message us on Telegram

By messaging us, you agree to our Privacy Policy

What it is

What is regenerative
joint treatment?

Everything used in regenerative joint treatment comes from you: platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is made from your blood, and the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) from a little adipose tissue. The doctor injects it into the painful joint to lessen inflammation and pain and to support the joint's inner tissues.

  • 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: having a fever, a cold or flu, or inflamed skin 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

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

A small volume of blood is drawn from a vein, which is later turned into platelet-rich plasma with growth factors.

Adipose tissue sample3

Adipose tissue sample

The doctor numbs the area with local anaesthetic and takes about 30 ml of adipose tissue through a puncture on the abdomen or inner thigh. Stitches are not needed.

Processing in a centrifuge4

Processing in a centrifuge

Spinning the sample in a centrifuge separates it into layers, after which the stromal vascular fraction is isolated and added to the platelet-rich plasma.

Injection into the joint5

Injection into the joint

The prepared material is injected straight into the affected joint under ultrasound guidance, which helps to place it precisely.

Follow-up6

Follow-up

You go without crutches and without a hospital stay; the doctor keeps in contact after the procedure and follows your joint's progress.

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

Just your blood and your adipose tissue; donor and synthetic materials are not used

Cell therapy (SVF) from your own adipose tissue

The stromal vascular fraction (SVF) — a combination of cells involved in tissue repair — is isolated by processing a small sample of your adipose tissue. It is combined with your plasma and injected into the joint that needs treatment.

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

More marked changes in the joint and the wish for a longer-lasting effect are the usual reasons to choose it.

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

A small amount of your blood is processed to separate plasma rich in platelets and growth factors, which is then injected into the joint. It helps settle inflammation and gives the tissues better conditions for repair.

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

A course of injections can be done with it alone, or it can be paired with SVF.

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

Treatment covers large and small joints, with the joint, the method and the number of injections chosen after the doctor reviews your scans

  • KneeKneeMeniscus problems, cartilage wear and pain on stairs or after a walk
  • HipHipEarly hip osteoarthritis, groin pain, limited rotation
  • ShoulderShoulderWorn joint and surrounding tendons, pain when lifting the arm
  • ElbowElbowPain caused by overuse or sports strain; worn joint surfaces
  • Hand and wrist jointsHand and wrist jointsStiffness and pain in the small joints of the hand and wrist
  • AnkleAnklePain and stiffness after sprains and old injuries

Advantages

Why patients choose City Medical Centre

We work on keeping your own joint rather than replacing it — treatment without surgery

Your own tissue

Your own tissue

Just your blood and your adipose tissue; donor and synthetic materials are not used

No crutches

No crutches

Local anaesthetic and punctures in place of incisions mean no long rehabilitation

Second opinion

Second opinion

Free of charge: a doctor's independent assessment of the X-rays, MRI or reports you send

Support after the procedure

Support after the procedure

Contact continues after the procedure — we track the result, not just the injection itself

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

By messaging us, you agree to our Privacy Policy

Request a free call

Price

Joint treatment prices

Pricing depends on the joint, the condition's stage and the method; you learn it from the doctor after the consultation

FAQ

Joint treatment: frequently asked questions

About the conditions

More about these conditions

Other services of our clinic

What Belfast residents ask about joint treatment

SVF and PRP work in different ways. PRP helps calm inflammation and creates better conditions for repair; SVF contains cells involved in tissue repair and is chosen when changes are more pronounced. For patients from Belfast, the doctor often combines the two.

Over about three months mobility and activity usually improve, and the full effect develops over around six months. How long it lasts depends on the stage of the condition, body weight and activity, so no one can promise a fixed result to patients in Belfast.

Patients from Belfast can start with a free second opinion: send your X-rays, MRI, CT or reports, and a doctor will tell you whether SVF or PRP could help. The price of treatment is named at the consultation.

Hills, slopes and the joints that carry you up them

Belfast is not a flat city. The basalt escarpment rises to the north and north-west: Divis Mountain reaches 478 m, Black Mountain 389 m and Cavehill 368 m. To the south-east the Castlereagh and Hollywood hills close the horizon. The centre sits low, at the mouth of the River Lagan where it meets Belfast Lough, so many daily routes tilt up or down. For a healthy knee this is just scenery. For a knee with worn cartilage, a long incline or a long descent can be what makes the pain obvious.

The knee is usually the first joint to complain. The treatment programme describes knee complaints as pain climbing stairs or after walking, cartilage wear and meniscus trouble. The hip tends to announce itself differently: groin pain and limited rotation, for example when you turn to get out of a car or reach down to put on a shoe. If you recognise these descriptions, make a note of which movements bring the pain on. A short list such as "going down a steep street", "getting up after sitting", "the first steps in the morning" is useful at the consultation, because the doctor can set it beside what the X-ray, MRI or ultrasound shows.

Regenerative joint treatment is aimed at people who want to postpone or avoid joint replacement. Your own blood provides platelet-rich plasma (PRP), and a small sample of your adipose tissue provides the stromal vascular fraction (SVF). The material is injected into the affected joint under ultrasound guidance. The aim is to reduce pain and inflammation and to support the tissues inside the joint. The chance of a lasting effect is higher at earlier stages of the condition, which is why the doctor looks at your scans before anything else.

Hip osteoarthritis, which is called coxarthrosis, is a good example. At early stages, PRP or SVF injections combined with exercise therapy and physiotherapy can reduce pain and improve movement. If the joint is already badly damaged, replacement may be the more realistic option. After seeing your scans, the doctor will tell you which of the two applies to you.

Rain, short winter days and what to track

Belfast has a mild maritime range. The Met Office normals give an annual mean of 9.9 °C, a mean maximum of 13.7 °C and a mean minimum of 6.3 °C. July is the warmest month, with a mean maximum of 19.7 °C, and summer highs stay under 20 °C. January is the coldest, with a mean maximum of 8.2 °C, while February has a mean minimum of 2.1 °C. There are no extremes, but the air is often damp. Annual precipitation is 938.7 mm over 156.2 days, and the wettest months are November (102.3 mm over 15.5 days), October (95.8 mm) and December (93.3 mm). April and May are the driest, at 60.4 mm and 59.6 mm.

Sunshine follows the same pattern. The city gets 1,277.0 hours a year, with May the brightest month at 185.1 hours, followed by April and June. December has only 35.3 hours and January 40.1. In the dull months many people simply move less, and a joint that is used less often stiffens. We do not claim that weather damages joints, and the programme says nothing of the kind. What we suggest is practical: if your symptoms seem to change with the season, record the date, the joint and the severity. A diary covering the wet autumn and the bright spring gives the doctor more than "it hurts sometimes".

Timing the procedure is a separate question. The service involves a blood sample, a sample of roughly 30 ml of adipose tissue taken under local anaesthetic through a small puncture in the abdomen or inner thigh, centrifuge processing and an ultrasound-guided injection. All of it is done in one day, with no stitches and no crutches. The first week may bring a little more aching in the joint, which is an expected reaction. After about a month the pain usually eases, around the three-month mark mobility and activity improve, and the full effect develops at about six months. If you want to be moving well for a spring event, count backwards from it rather than from the day of the injection. No one can promise a fixed result, so leave some slack.

Walking, cycling and running on a joint that pushes back

Belfast offers a lot of low-impact movement. The Connswater Community Greenway provides 16 km of continuous cycle path and walkway through east Belfast, and National Cycle Route 9 to Newry starts in the city. Flat, continuous routes like these are where many people with knee or hip trouble first test how far they can go. If you notice that you now stop at a particular point, or that the pain arrives hours after the ride rather than during it, that detail is worth reporting.

The calendar also has a strong running tradition. The Belfast Marathon is held every year on May Day; its 41st edition in 2023 drew about 15,000 participants across all events. High load on the joints, whether from sport or physical work, is listed among the situations where the treatment may suit you, along with recovery after injuries and surgery. Joints that take repeated impact are also the ones that develop meniscus problems and cartilage wear. The ankle follows a similar pattern. The programme describes pain and stiffness after sprains and old injuries, and anyone who has twisted an ankle on a wet pavement will know how that goes.

The shoulder, elbow and hand matter too, though they are less often discussed. Shoulder pain on raising the arm, aching in the elbow after sport or overuse, and stiffness in the small joints of the hand and wrist can all be assessed. The doctor settles which joint, which method and how many injections after checking your scans. For some problems, PRP alone is appropriate; for others, PRP is combined with SVF, which is usually the choice when changes in the joint are more marked and the aim is a longer-lasting effect.

Because both methods use your own tissue, there is no donor or synthetic material involved, and the risk of rejection or allergic reaction is very low. As with any injection, temporary pain, swelling or bruising are possible, and infection is rare. Some conditions rule the procedure out: cancer, pregnancy, blood clotting disorders, acute infections including infection in or near the joint, and a flare-up of a serious chronic illness. Skin inflammation over the joint, a fever, a cold or flu are temporary reasons to wait.

A city of students, a growing share of older adults and a lot of arthritis

Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, with a population of 351,927 in 2025 for the district and 704,406 for the wider metropolitan area as recorded in 2021. It spreads over 133 km² at a density of 2,647 people per km². It is also a student city: Queen's University Belfast has over 25,000 students, Ulster University has a campus in the Cathedral Quarter, and Belfast Metropolitan College has over 53,000 students enrolled on full- and part-time courses. Students are not the typical patients for joint treatment, but a campus-heavy city means many working-age adults of every kind, including those who have had a sports injury and are looking at how to protect the joint over the coming decades.

For the wider picture, the national figures are sobering. Arthritis UK, in the 2026 edition of its State of Musculoskeletal Health report, says that over 10 million adults, young people and children in the UK live with arthritis. The NHS describes osteoarthritis as the most common type of arthritis in the UK. The risk rises with age, is higher in women than in men, and is higher in people with obesity or a previous joint injury. A GP may suspect it in people aged 45 or older.

Body weight is part of this conversation. The Health Survey Northern Ireland 2023/24, published on 12 December 2024, found that 28% of adults were obese and 37% overweight, 64% combined. We mention it because the doctor also lists body weight among the factors that affect how long a result lasts. Raising it at the consultation is not a judgement; it is one of the inputs to a realistic plan.

It also helps to separate two conditions that are often confused. Osteoarthritis is gradual wear of the cartilage covering the ends of the bones: aching pain on movement, crunching and stiffness after rest. It is degenerative rather than inflammatory. Arthritis is inflammation: pain at rest and at night, morning stiffness lasting more than 30 minutes, swelling, redness and warmth over the joint. The causes include autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, infections, gout and psoriasis. The approach differs, so the diagnosis comes first.

How joint care is organised nationally, and how an online consultation fits in

The NHS says a hip replacement may be considered when hip pain and stiffness have a big effect on daily life and other treatments have not worked. It names osteoarthritis as the main cause, with rheumatoid arthritis and hip injury also on the list. For rheumatoid arthritis the NHS states plainly that there is no cure. Treatment is long-term medicine to relieve symptoms and slow progression, plus physiotherapy and occupational therapy, and surgery can fix joint problems that develop. Our programme works in a different place on that road: it is for people who want to put off or avoid replacement, or who have been told replacement is their only choice, and who want a second view.

An online consultation here costs nothing and carries no obligation to book anything. You write to the coordinator on WhatsApp or Telegram, who answer round the clock, 24/7. The coordinator asks for your X-ray, MRI or ultrasound, or for any medical reports you have, and a doctor reviews them free of charge. You then hear whether the procedure could suit you and what else may be needed. If a replacement is the more honest answer for your joint, you will be told so.

Planning around dates is simple because the messaging is always open. Northern Ireland has 10 bank holidays in 2026, including St Patrick's Day on 17 March and the substitute day for the Battle of the Boyne on 13 July, in addition to the set shared with England and Wales. A bank holiday does not close the coordinators' chat, so you can send scans on such a day and have the reply waiting. Your own diary matters more: pick a quiet stretch after the injection for the first weeks, when the doctor gives you load and exercise recommendations.

After the procedure the doctor stays in touch and follows how your joint responds, so the result is tracked beyond the injection day. The doctor will confirm every timing and benefit mentioned here at the consultation, because recovery depends on your joint and your individual features.

Does Belfast's damp weather mean I should delay or schedule the injection for a particular season?

Nothing in the treatment plan depends on the season. Belfast's wettest months are November, October and December, and its driest are April and May, but the procedure itself is done in one day and needs no crutches. What matters more is your own calendar: the joint may ache a little more in the first week, the pain usually eases after about a month, mobility improves around three months and the full effect develops at about six months. The doctor can help you pick a start date at the consultation.

I walk the Connswater Greenway or cycle on Route 9. Will I have to stop?

The doctor gives load and exercise recommendations for the first weeks after the procedure, and you can return to normal life normally within a day or two. How soon you go back to long rides or walks depends on the joint and on what the doctor sees on your scans, so ask about your specific routes. Describing how far you can currently go before the pain starts is useful information for that conversation.

Can I train for the Belfast Marathon on May Day with a painful knee, and should I plan injections around it?

We cannot promise a fixed result or a date by which you will be ready to run. The timeline for the effect runs from an expected ache in week one to easing at about a month, better mobility at about three months and the full effect at about six. Work backwards from the event with those intervals in mind, and let the doctor judge, from your MRI or ultrasound, whether running is realistic for your joint.

Is osteoarthritis common enough here that I should expect it from a certain age?

The NHS says osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis in the UK, that risk increases with age and that a GP may suspect it in people aged 45 or older. It is also more common in women, in people with obesity and after joint injury. That is a general pattern, not a prediction for you. Your scans and examination decide the stage, and earlier stages carry a better chance of a lasting effect.

How does this relate to what the NHS offers for hip and knee problems?

The NHS considers hip replacement when pain and stiffness greatly affect life and other treatments have not worked. Our programme is a different option for people who want to try to keep their own joint, using PRP and SVF from their own tissue. It does not replace the advice of your GP or a specialist, and if the doctor concludes that your joint is too damaged, you will be told that replacement may be more realistic.

I have rheumatoid arthritis. Can I still send my scans?

Yes. Send your X-rays, MRI, CT or reports and a doctor will review them free of charge. The NHS says there is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis and that treatment is long-term medicine plus physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Inflammatory joint conditions are among those we assess, but a serious chronic illness in a flare-up rules the procedure out for the time being, so the doctor will want the full picture.

What should I prepare before writing to the coordinator?

Gather any X-ray, MRI or ultrasound images and reports, and write down which joint hurts, which movements make it worse, and whether the pain comes at rest or at night. Note any previous injuries or operations. If you have a fever, a cold, flu or skin inflammation over the joint, mention it, because these are temporary reasons to wait.

Does a bank holiday in Northern Ireland affect when I can get an answer?

No. The coordinators reply on WhatsApp and Telegram 24/7, so a bank holiday such as St Patrick's Day on 17 March does not stop you sending scans. Your first message and the review of your scans are free, with no obligation to book anything.