Gold-Induced Cytokine (Goldic®) – A Promising Treatment in Patients with Grade 4 Knee Osteoarthritis: A Case Study

Abstract

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is one of the most common degenerative diseases that can lead to disability and pain. The degenerative nature of this condition cannot be reversed or healed by any currently available treatments. Recently, there has been an upcoming interest in treating degenerative tissue disorders with minimally invasive autologous blood products. Autologous blood was preconditioned with gold particles to encourage the production of various proteins in patients’ blood. This current study investigated the safety and efficacy of pre-conditioning autologous blood with gold particles (GOLDIC®) in patients with severe knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Case presentation We report a case in which four intra-articular GOLDIC® injections were used to treat knee osteoarthritis. After a week, physiotherapy was recommended. Before and three weeks after the injections, she was assessed for her weight, the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and the Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) score. GOLDIC® treatment resulted in significant weight, VAS, and WOMAC score improvements without serious side effects. Conclusion Due to the one-time blood harvesting and only four injections, the initial results demonstrated that the treatment plan is safe, less expensive, patient-friendly, and more successful at achieving compliance. This GOLDIC® treatment can significantly decrease pain and improve knee capability with overall satisfaction over a significant period. To fully validate the real potential of GOLDIC® in heterogeneous patient populations and to compare these promising results to other blood-based platforms, future randomized-controlled trials with long-term follow-up are required, despite the promising early clinical results.