A REVOLUTIONARY treatment performed by a Salisbury surgeon is offering local people in pain with damaged knee cartilages the chance to lead normal, active lives again.

Leading orthopaedic surgeon Gurd Shergill has already performed the first stage of the treatment on a 39-year-old Amesbury woman in an operation at New Hall Hospital, Bodenham.

And he is due to perform a similar operation on the first Salisbury District Hospital patient within the next few months.

Salisbury health care trust confirmed this week that it will be funding ten to 15 of the operations, involving a procedure known as autologous chondrocyte implantation - or knee cartilage transplantation - during the first year of a countrywide study currently being conducted of the technique.

Mr Shergill is one of only a handful of experts in the country trained to perform ACI, a technique developed in Sweden and then established by Professor George Bentley at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore.

Mr Shergill, who worked closely with Prof Bentley at Stanmore before taking up his consultant's appointment at Salisbury District Hospital in 2001, told the Journal: "The procedure is performed in two stages.

"During the first stage, a very small sample of the patient's own cartilage from the knee is taken through keyhole surgery.

"This sample is then sent to a laboratory, where the cells from the cartilage are cultured.

"About four weeks later, the patient has an open operation on the knee, whereby the damaged cartilage is removed and the new cells are implanted on a collagen patch.

"The patient is then expected to undertake normal activity within ten to 12 weeks - and sporting activities within six to nine months."

Mr Shergill added: "The type of patient benefiting from this operation is someone aged between 15 to 55, who has symptoms suggestive of localised cartilage damage to the knee. This can occur with or without an injury.

"The treatment is aimed at generating new cartilage in an area of cartilage damage. This will improve the patient's pain and also improve the function of the knee so that he or she can return to work and sporting activities.

"As well as this, the long-term aim is to prevent the onset of early arthritis in the knee and therefore prevent the need for knee replacement surgery at a young age."