Amniofix in Refarctory Knee Pain

The amniotic membrane is a constituent of placental tissue that protects and supports the fetus in utero. It is composed of extracellular matrix components such as collagen, fibronectin, and laminin, and contains many different growth factors and cytokines. The healing properties of amniotic tissue were first identified in 1910(1) where it was discovered that they help in healing refractory, stalled wounds. However this immunologically privileged structure was lost to scientific community for close to 90 years until technological advances led to its being “rediscovered” in 2000. I am reporting my retrospective case series of 40 patients of variable age group who had failed all conservative treatment options including all other injections like steroids and viscosupplementation and was reluctant for surgery. Patients were injected with Amnio-fix injection and were followed at 4 weeks and 8 weeks and 6 months and contacted at 1 year. Failure rate was defined as improvement of < 50 percent in VAS scale. 65 percent Patients reported improvement in there VAS pain levels of more than 60 percent and 25 percent reported improvements of 50 percent and 10 percent did not have any improvement . The majority group above reported improvement in their walking distance. Based on above failure rate was 10-25 percent which was defined as need of other treatments/surgery. This retrospective review of cases suggests that Amnio-fix can be used in treatment of refractory arthritic knee pain. To the best of our knowledge this is a second follow up series in English Literature elucidating the benefits of Amniofix in osteoarthritis. As technology advances and price become affordable the research world will hear more about this product.