A Prospective, Single-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate for Knee Osteoarthritis

Shapiro SA, Kazmerchak SE, Heckman MG, et al. · The American Journal of Sports Medicine

Pain decreased markedly in BOTH knees at 1 week, 3 and 6 months with no significant difference between BMAC and saline knees (P>.09) — consistent with a large placebo/natural-history effect, not a BMAC-specific one.

Population

25 patients with bilateral knee OA (one knee randomized to each treatment)

Intervention

Single BMAC injection

Comparator

Saline injection in the contralateral knee (within-patient control)

Limitations

Small n; bilateral design allows systemic crossover of marrow-derived factors, but the honest read is no local superiority over saline.