Revealed: The miracle treatment that could ease your crippling knee pain and save you from surgery for years

Former Olympic athlete Allison Curbishley used to compete for Britain in the 400m, but by last year she was struggling to even walk a few feet because her right knee was so painful and stiff.

Like millions in this country Allison, 48, was suffering with osteoarthritis, when cushioning cartilage in the joint wears away, and doctors were warning her a knee replacement may be her only option.

But despite her finding even going down the stairs virtually impossible at times, Allison didn’t feel ready to undergo this surgery. 

‘I knew if I had one [a replacement knee] that young, it would probably need replacing in about 20 years,’ says Allison, now a BBC broadcaster who lives near Hexham, Northumberland, with partner Steve Cram, 64, the Olympic silver medallist and athletics commentator. ‘But I didn’t think I had many other options.’

Yet Allison is now back to her former active lifestyle – after having an injection of a gel normally used to treat lame horses.

Doctors hope it will delay younger patients needing a knee replacement by years.

More than 100,000 people a year in the UK undergo knee replacement surgery. Although the average age for the procedure is 70, around one in six patients are under 60.

An artificial joint usually lasts about 20 years. It’s hoped the new gel, called Arthrosamid, could postpone when patients need their first knee replacement, potentially avoiding the need for a second one in later years.

Called a hydrogel, it is made of water and a porous component called a polyacrylamide, a substance that’s not degraded by our immune system so remains in the knee for years, where it calms down inflammation in the synovium, the soft membrane that lines and protects the knee joint.

Once the gel is injected, which takes 15 minutes under a local anaesthetic, it gets absorbed by the synovial membrane.

Data presented at the European Orthopaedic Research Society meeting in Denmark last year, involving 49 patients with an average age of 70, showed that four years after a single jab of the gel they still had reduced pain and stiffness and improved function of the knee. 

More than five million people in the UK have knee osteoarthritis, according to the charity Versus Arthritis. It causes cartilage – the tough fibrous material which acts as a shock absorber for our joints – to be worn down to the point where bones rub together.

This is not only caused by wear and tear; it is now believed that gender (it’s more common in women), obesity and injury to the joint also play a part.

‘More people are exercising and active for longer,’ says Andrew Pearse, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Worcestershire

Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. ‘Recreational sportspeople have higher rates of injury and therefore are more likely to end up with osteoarthritis.’

Treatment usually revolves around controlling the pain and inflammation with drugs such as ibuprofen, or steroid injections into the knee to reduce the swelling. But tens of thousands each year need major surgery to have an artificial knee joint fitted.

Allison was forced to retire from athletics after six operations (followed by a further three since retiring) to clean out damaged cartilage floating inside her knee.

‘Unfortunately my knee problems have plagued me all through my athletics career,’ says Allison.

‘By the time I was into my mid-40s there was less and less I could do. I couldn’t kneel because my right knee simply wouldn’t bend enough to allow that and was too weak for me to ever balance one-legged on it.

‘After a long drive I had to flex my knee because it was so stiff. I would wake up in the night as my knee hurt so much, and in the morning I had to warm it up with gentle bending movements.’

Painkillers did little to help and in November 2022 her knee had deteriorated so much that her surgeon raised the subject of a joint replacement.

‘By this time I was suffering big flare-ups when my knee would lock and leave me in agony,’ Allison recalls. But then she heard about the new gel treatment via her physiotherapist.

Arthrosamid was developed in Denmark and was first used in 2009 in the veterinary world to treat lameness in horses. Since proving safe for humans, about 15,000 patients across Europe have had the treatment.

It’s not available on the NHS and private treatment in the UK costs around £2,500.

‘It has the potential to be a game-changer,’ says Mr Pearse.

Meanwhile, a five-year NHS trial was launched last year by Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital and Keele University, involving 61 patients with knee osteoarthritis who were given Arthrosamid. Six months in, researchers reported 76 per cent had reduced pain and improved function.

Allison had her injection in July last year and was almost immediately ‘walking about without any pain and I had more flexion in my knee’, she says. Earlier this year she did her first 5km Park Run in five years.

‘At some point I might need a knee replacement but the gel has at least bought me more time before having it,’ she says.