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Osteoarthritis in Bari: Treatment by Stage

SVF cells and platelet-rich plasma for joints worn by arthrosis — knee, hip and others. Stage checked through a free review of your X-rays or MRI

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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 osteoarthritis
(arthrosis)?

In this chronic disease — osteoarthritis, or arthrosis — joint cartilage is gradually worn thin. Losing the cartilage cushion lets bone rub against bone, which brings pain, stiffness and a smaller range of motion. It is classed as degenerative, not inflammatory, even though swelling may come with flare-ups.

  • 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

Your scans are reviewed and you are examined — 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: a cold, flu or fever, or inflamed skin over the joint planned for treatment

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

Examination of the joint plus a review of your X-rays, MRI or ultrasound tells the doctor whether the procedure is suitable. If you have scans already, you can send them before the appointment.

Blood sample for PRP2

Blood sample for PRP

The nurse takes a little blood from a vein. Platelet-rich plasma with growth factors is prepared from this blood later.

Adipose tissue sample3

Adipose tissue sample

A puncture on the abdomen or inner thigh, under local anaesthetic, is used to take a small portion of adipose tissue (about 30 ml). No stitches afterwards.

Processing in a centrifuge4

Processing in a centrifuge

In a centrifuge the sample separates into layers; the stromal vascular fraction is isolated and combined with the platelet-rich plasma.

Injection into the joint5

Injection into the joint

With ultrasound guiding the needle, the prepared material is injected directly into the affected joint and placed precisely.

Follow-up6

Follow-up

No crutches, no stay in hospital. The doctor keeps in contact after the procedure and watches how your joint responds.

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 your own blood and adipose tissue are used — no donor or synthetic material

Cell therapy (SVF) from your own adipose tissue

The method uses the stromal vascular fraction (SVF), a mix of cells that support tissue repair, isolated by processing a small sample of your adipose tissue. It is injected into the affected joint along with your own plasma.

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

Mainly at early and moderate stages of osteoarthritis — to reduce friction between the joint surfaces and slow down cartilage wear.

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

Taken from a small amount of your blood, plasma rich in platelets and growth factors is injected into the joint. There it helps calm inflammation and sets up better conditions for tissue repair.

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

Commonly used for mild osteoarthritis — and together with SVF when you need a stronger effect.

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 for both large and small joints — your scans guide the doctor's choice of joint, method and number of injections

  • KneeKneeMeniscus problems, cartilage wear and pain when walking or on stairs
  • HipHipEarly hip osteoarthritis, groin pain, limited rotation
  • ShoulderShoulderWorn joint and surrounding tendons, with pain when the arm is raised
  • ElbowElbowPain from overuse or sports load, with worn joint surfaces
  • Hand and wrist jointsHand and wrist jointsStiff, painful small joints in the fingers and the wrist
  • AnkleAnklePain and stiffness after sprains and old injuries

Advantages

Why patients choose City Medical Centre

Our focus is saving your own joint, not replacing it — through treatment without surgery

Your own tissue

Your own tissue

Only your own blood and adipose tissue are used — no donor or synthetic material

No crutches

No crutches

Instead of incisions we use punctures, under local anaesthetic, with no long rehabilitation

Second opinion

Second opinion

Free of charge, a doctor gives an independent assessment of the X-rays, MRI or reports you send

Support after the procedure

Support after the procedure

After the procedure, we keep in touch and watch the result — our work does not end on 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

Osteoarthritis treatment prices

Since the joint, the method and the stage of osteoarthritis determine the cost, it is named by the doctor after the consultation

FAQ

Joint treatment: frequently asked questions

About the conditions

More about these conditions

Other services of our clinic

Choosing osteoarthritis treatment in Bari

For patients from Bari, the aim is to keep your own joint as long as possible. The milder the stage, the faster and longer-lasting the effect usually is, and it may reduce the need for regular hyaluronic acid injections.

The procedure does not require crutches or a hospital stay. Patients from Bari return to normal daily activity within a day or two and receive recommendations on load for the first weeks.

Do not wait until the joint is destroyed. Book a free consultation in Bari: early and moderate osteoarthritis responds best to treatment. The price is set individually.

Cartilage wear and the shape of a southern Adriatic city

Bari is a port city on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy, in the Apulia (Puglia) region. The municipality has 316,248 inhabitants according to ISTAT (2026), while the Metropolitan City is home to 1,218,073 people and the urban area to about 750,000. For osteoarthritis this matters because a large population always includes many adults in the age range when joint complaints first become noticeable: a knee that complains on the stairs, a hip that stiffens after sitting, a thumb joint that aches in the morning.

Osteoarthritis (arthrosis) is slow, chronic wear of the cartilage that lines the joint. Healthy cartilage softens impact. When it thins, the bone ends rub on each other, and the joint hurts, stiffens and moves less. Flare-ups with swelling can happen, but the underlying process is degenerative, not inflammatory. The knees (gonarthrosis) and hips (coxarthrosis) are affected most because they carry the greatest load. The ankle and the small joints of the hand follow.

Italy has a high life expectancy: 83.4 years in 2018 according to the OECD, the fourth highest in that group of countries. A long life is good news, but it also means joints have more years of load to withstand. The practical conclusion for a resident of Bari is simple. If pain, crunching or stiffness has become a regular companion, it is worth establishing the stage early, because the non-surgical approach described here works best at an early or moderate stage, before the joint surfaces are badly worn.

This is an online service. You do not need to arrange anything in advance except to send the scans you already have: an X-ray, an MRI or an ultrasound report. A doctor reviews them free of charge and tells you which stage they see and whether a non-surgical plan is realistic. If a joint replacement looks more honest for your case, you will be told that frankly.

Body weight, inactivity and what they do to knees and hips

Weight is one of the factors that most affects how quickly a weight-bearing joint wears. ISTAT figures for 2023 show that among Italian adults aged 18 and over, 46.3% were overweight or obese: 34.6% overweight and 11.8% obese, up from 10.3% obesity in 2013. In the same survey, 35% of people aged 3 and over were sedentary. These are national figures, and no regional split for Apulia was found, so they should not be read as a statement about Bari specifically. They do show the general background against which many Italian patients arrive with knee and hip complaints.

Why does this matter for cartilage? Every step passes the body's weight through the knee and hip. A joint that is already thinning has less margin. At the consultation the doctor will ask about your weight, your daily activity and any old injuries, because the duration of the effect after treatment depends on the stage of the condition, body weight, activity and other factors. No one can promise a fixed result, and an honest plan says so from the start.

Movement is not the enemy, however. Suitable activity builds the muscles that unload the joint, feeds the cartilage better and keeps you mobile. Swimming, water aerobics, cycling, Nordic walking and yoga are sensible choices. Running on hard surfaces, jumping, heavy lifting and sudden movements are best avoided. With a coastline right there, water-based exercise is an option that suits a joint under load, though the choice is yours and the doctor can adjust it to your scans.

Injection treatment is not a replacement for this groundwork. It is meant to sit alongside weight control, exercise and physiotherapy. Osteoarthritis is chronic, so it calls for an ongoing plan rather than a one-off injection.

Winter stiffness, summer heat and the weather in Bari

The climate of Bari is mild by European standards, but the figures still show a clear seasonal rhythm. In January the mean daily high is 12.6 °C and the mean low 4.1 °C. In July the mean high is 30.6 °C and the low 20.0 °C; August is almost identical at 30.5 °C and 20.1 °C. The annual mean high is 21.1 °C and the low 11.5 °C. Records show 45.6 °C at the top and -7.6 °C at the bottom, the latter in January and December.

Humidity and rain follow the colder months. Relative humidity averages 68.5% over the year, 60.4% in July and 74.9% in November. Annual precipitation is 466.6 mm over 61.4 days with at least 1 mm. November is the wettest month with 62.0 mm, then October with 53.9 mm, while August is the driest with 13.3 mm. Sunshine totals 2,829.5 hours a year: 355.6 hours in July, only 120.4 in December.

Many people with osteoarthritis say that joints feel stiffer in damp, cool weather. Medicine does not have a simple, uniform explanation for this, and the figures above do not prove it for any individual. What can be said practically is that shorter, darker days tend to reduce walking, and less movement means more stiffness. Morning stiffness is also a way of telling osteoarthritis from arthritis. In osteoarthritis the pain is aching and comes with movement, with crunching and stiffness after rest. In arthritis the joint is inflamed, with pain at rest and at night, swelling, redness and warmth, and morning stiffness lasting more than 30 minutes.

If you plan treatment, the season rarely matters for the procedure itself, which is done in one day without incisions or crutches. What does matter is the condition of the skin over the joint and your general health on the day. A raised temperature, a cold or flu, or inflamed skin above the target joint are temporary reasons to postpone. In the damp months, respiratory infections are common, so it is sensible to tell the coordinator about any cold before a date is fixed.

Work, sport and a city that watches football

Joint load comes from many sources: physical work, long hours on your feet, repeated kneeling or lifting, and sport. The city's rhythm includes a large student population. The University of Bari, founded in 1925, is reported at about 49,000 students in the infobox and around 40,000 in the article text, with no year stated for either. The Polytechnic University of Bari, an Academy of Fine Arts and a Conservatory are also listed. Young people rarely have osteoarthritis, but old injuries are a different matter. A sprained ankle or a torn meniscus at 20 can leave a joint that wears faster in the decades after.

That is why the list of conditions handled here includes meniscus pathology and injury, rehabilitation after injuries and surgery, and the ankle, with pain and stiffness after sprains and old injuries. Football is part of the picture too. SSC Bari plays in Serie B (2024-25) at the Stadio San Nicola, which seats 58,000, was built for the 1990 FIFA World Cup and hosted the 1991 European Cup final. Bari also hosted the 2007 CMAS World Games, which cover underwater sports. Amateur players of any sport often arrive with the knee as the first joint to complain.

The treatment suits people with a high load on the joints, whether from sport or physical work, provided the stage is early or moderate. It also suits those who want to avoid or postpone joint replacement, those for whom painkillers help only for a short time, and those who need a second opinion on their scans. It does not suit cancer, pregnancy, blood clotting disorders, acute infections (including infection in or near the joint) or a flare-up of a serious chronic illness.

How the Italian health system fits around a private consultation

Italy's national health service, the SSN (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale), was established in 1978 and gives universal coverage to citizens and residents. It is run on a regional basis under the Ministry of Health, which sets the national Essential Levels of Care (LEA). So for a person in Bari, the first contact for joint pain is usually a general practitioner, who can refer to a specialist and arrange imaging through the regional system.

Waiting times are described as usually up to a few months in the big public facilities and up to a few weeks in private facilities contracted with the SSN. No official waiting-list figure was found, so treat this as a general description rather than a promise. Specialist visits carry a co-payment (a ticket), with exemptions by age (for example, over 65), income or chronic illness. There is also evidence of patients moving from the poorer southern regions to the more prosperous north for care. People in the south who feel the system is slow sometimes look for an extra opinion elsewhere, and an online review of scans is one way to get it without leaving home.

The consultation with our doctor is free and does not replace the SSN pathway. It is an additional, independent look at your X-ray, MRI or ultrasound. Whether any particular procedure is covered by the SSN or by insurance is a matter for the regional health service or your insurer, and the coordinator will not guess on that point. The cost of treatment itself is quoted by the doctor after the consultation, since it depends on the joint, the method and the stage.

What the procedure involves and when you notice change

The method uses only your own blood and adipose tissue, with no donor or synthetic material. After the consultation and review of your scans, a small amount of blood is taken from a vein for platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Under local anaesthetic, the doctor collects roughly 30 ml of adipose tissue through a puncture on the abdomen or the inner thigh. No stitches are needed. The sample is spun in a centrifuge and the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) is isolated and blended with the plasma. The mixture is then injected into the affected joint under ultrasound guidance. The whole procedure takes one day, with no hospital stay.

The expected course is as follows. At about 1 week the joint may ache a little more, which is an expected reaction. At about 1 month the pain usually eases. At about 3 months mobility and activity improve, and at about 6 months the full effect develops. Some patients notice early changes 2–3 weeks after the procedure. These timings are averaged and given for guidance, and the doctor confirms them for your own joint.

PRP is often used for mild osteoarthritis and helps quieten inflammation. SVF is used chiefly in early and moderate osteoarthritis, aiming to slow cartilage wear and reduce friction between the joint surfaces. When a stronger effect is needed, the two are combined. After the procedure the doctor keeps in touch and follows how the joint responds.

Does the cold, damp season in Bari make osteoarthritis worse?

Many people report more stiffness in cool, damp weather, but there is no single explanation and the climate figures do not prove it for any one person. In Bari, January has a mean high of 12.6 °C and a low of 4.1 °C, and November is the wettest month with 62.0 mm of rain and 74.9% humidity. If your pain follows the season, send your scans anyway: the doctor will judge the stage, and keeping active through the darker months matters as much as the weather.

Is the summer heat a problem for planning the injection?

July and August bring mean highs of about 30.5 °C. The procedure itself is a puncture, not an incision, and is done in one day, so heat is not a barrier in itself. What can delay a date is a raised temperature, a cold or flu, or inflamed skin over the target joint. Tell the coordinator if any of these applies, and the date can be moved.

Will the Italian national health service cover this treatment?

The SSN provides universal coverage and sets national Essential Levels of Care, but it is run regionally, so the answer for a specific procedure depends on the regional health service and your insurer. The coordinator cannot promise coverage. The consultation and review of your scans are free in any case, and the doctor quotes the cost of treatment only after reviewing them.

I already have an X-ray from my general practitioner. Is it enough?

Often it is a good start. An X-ray remains the main method and shows the stage, while MRI gives a detailed picture of cartilage and soft tissues. Ultrasound shows inflammation and fluid in the joint, and blood tests help rule out inflammatory diseases. Send what you have through WhatsApp or Telegram, and the doctor will say whether anything more is needed.

Does excess weight rule me out?

Not by itself. Body weight is one of the factors that influence how long the effect lasts, together with the stage of the condition and your activity. About 46.3% of Italian adults are overweight or obese according to ISTAT 2023, so it is a common situation. The doctor will discuss weight, exercise and the joint plan together at the consultation.

I played football for years and my knee is worn. Is it too late?

It depends on the stage. Early and moderate stages respond best, and the milder the stage, the faster and longer-lasting the effect tends to be. If the joint space has almost disappeared at the most advanced stage, a lasting effect cannot be expected, and the doctor will tell you honestly if a joint replacement is more realistic. Old sports injuries and meniscus problems are among the conditions reviewed.

Can someone over 65 be treated, given the age exemptions in the Italian system?

Age on its own is not a reason for exclusion in the list of contraindications. What counts is the stage of the joint and your general health: cancer, pregnancy, blood clotting disorders, acute infections and a flare-up of a serious chronic illness are the reasons not to proceed. The doctor decides after examining your scans and asking about your health.

Can I contact the coordinator outside normal hours?

Yes. Coordinators answer round the clock, 24/7, on WhatsApp and Telegram, so you can send your scans on a day when public offices are closed, including Sundays and Italian national holidays such as 1 November or 8 December.