Clinical Efficacy of Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate Versus Stromal Vascular Fraction Injection in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Knee injection using either bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) or stromal vascular fraction (SVF) from adipose tissue has been shown to result in symptomatic improvement in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). It is still unclear whether one of these therapies is superior over the other. PURPOSE: To systematically report the clinical studies evaluating BMAC and SVF in the treatment of knee OA and to compare the clinical efficacy of these 2 injection therapies. STUDY DESIGN: Meta-analysis; Level of evidence, 4. METHODS: < .05. Results were limited by the presence of publication bias as well as variability in the preparation methods utilized in the BMAC and SVF injection protocols. Complications were reported in 50% of the BMAC studies (knee stiffness, persistent knee swelling) and 67% of the SVF studies (knee swelling, knee pain, positive SVF cultures without symptoms of infection, and bleeding at the abdominal harvest site). CONCLUSION: A single BMAC or SVF injection into the knee joint of patients with OA resulted in symptomatic improvement at short-term follow-up. However, SVF seemed to be more effective than did BMAC in the reduction of knee pain. There was significant variation in the BMAC and SVF injection preparation techniques used across the studies and a lack of stratification of outcomes based on the radiologic classification of OA. Therefore, these results should be taken with caution.