
Injectable, Structural Regenerative Implant for Cartilage Care
Protect • Repair • Regenerate
← Back HomeBrowse every article and treatment insight.

NICE restricts MACI to patients meeting all four criteria simultaneously — a defect larger than 2 cm², no prior cartilage surgery, minimal osteoarthritis, and referral to a tertiary centre — whilst ChondroFiller injection has no such gates, serving largely different populations.

ChondroFiller is a Type I collagen gel injected under ultrasound guidance into the shoulder, where it polymerises to form a scaffold recruiting the patient's own progenitor cells to regenerate cartilage. This acellular approach carries no upper age limit and treats diffuse wear as well as focal lesions.

Most ankle arthritis is post-traumatic and mechanically correctable, not the gradual wear seen in hip or knee disease. For younger patients with viable cartilage and correctable alignment, a preservation window remains open—but narrows with advancing disease.

70–85% of appropriately selected patients achieve meaningful symptom relief from ChondroFiller injections, with functional improvements roughly double the minimum clinically important difference at three to five years of follow-up.

ChondroFiller injection places a collagen scaffold at the damaged cartilage surface where it recruits the joint's own repair cells; 70–85% of appropriately selected patients with early-to-mid osteoarthritis show durable functional improvement over three to five years.

ChondroFiller injection costs £3,000–£9,800 depending on cartilage defect size and is not funded by the NHS or covered as standard by UK private insurers.

Cartilage damage won’t reverse on its own—yet with the right plan it can be protected, repaired, and regenerated.
At Liquid Cartilage, you access world-leading science and a joint-preservation vision on Harley Street.
(Consultation fee credited towards treatment if you proceed.)