Professor Paul Lee

Professor Paul Lee is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and internationally recognised specialist in cartilage repair, joint preservation and regenerative orthopaedics. He practises at the London Cartilage Clinic on Harley Street — accredited by the International Cartilage Regeneration & Joint Preservation Society (ICRS) as a Teaching Centre of Excellence, where surgeons train in cartilage and joint preservation surgery — alongside his MSK Doctors clinics in Lincolnshire, caring for patients from across the UK and internationally. His entire practice is built around a single question: can your joint still be saved before replacement?

Not every patient is the same, and not every joint should be placed on a standard pathway. Many people arrive having been told a new knee or hip is their only option; Professor Lee offers specialist second opinions and explains the alternatives to all joint replacement — what may still be preserved, what may still be repaired, and where regeneration may still have a role. His guiding framework is simple: preserve, repair, regenerate — and replace only when truly needed.

In 2026, the British Orthopaedic Association awarded Professor Lee the Robert Jones Medal and Association Prize, one of the BOA's flagship honours — named after the founding father of modern British orthopaedics and recognising outstanding contribution to clinical practice, research and academic thought. It crowned a career that also includes 20 years of NHS service, formally recognised with the NHS Long Service Award in 2026. In October 2026 he is due to bring this message to the public stage with an invited TEDx talk on the regeneration revolution.

Professor Lee offers an exceptionally broad portfolio of joint preservation treatments, matched to each patient rather than applied as a one-size-fits-all fix. He was the first surgeon in the UK to use Arthrosamid for knee osteoarthritis and has now performed more than 1,000 treatments; he pioneered the Liquid Cartilage technique, combining a ChondroFiller collagen scaffold with the patient's own biology and designed to help repair damaged cartilage without major surgery; and his single-stage STACi procedure uses the patient's own cartilage cells in one operation instead of the traditional two-stage approach. These sit alongside image-guided injections including platelet-rich plasma (PRP), platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) and cell-based therapies — the right injection, at the right time, into the right joint.

Building on this work, he developed NanoACi, a single-stage, needle-delivered approach to cartilage repair. It combines small fragments of the patient’s own cartilage, known as micrografts, with a supporting collagen scaffold and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) prepared from the patient’s blood. Treatment is selected following an individual assessment, with the aim of supporting cartilage repair and joint preservation. Outcomes for the combined technique are being evaluated through follow-up.

When surgery is the right answer, the same preservation-first thinking applies. For ACL and sports knee injuries, Professor Lee developed STARR (Single Treatment ACL Regenerative Repair), which, in suitable injuries, aims to preserve and repair the patient's own ligament without taking a tendon graft from the leg; he is one of the UK's leading exponents of the muscle-sparing SPAIRE hip replacement, which spares the deep tendons — an approach designed to support an earlier, more confident recovery; and his TWIS-TKR knee replacement technique is designed around the natural movement pattern of the patient's own knee. In his practice, recovery is part of the operation — structured, measured and personally supervised — not an afterthought.

Supporting these treatments, his RegenRepair™ pathway brings together assessment, biological preparation, personalised treatment, rehabilitation and measured follow-up. Recovery is planned as part of the treatment process, with progress reviewed over time through changes in symptoms, movement and everyday function.

A surgeon, scientist and engineer, Professor Lee holds a PhD in medical engineering and is Honorary Professor of Sports Medicine at the University of Lincoln. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications, is Editor-in-Chief of Springer Nature's Musculoskeletal Regeneration Medicine, and is the author of Regeneration by Design, an Amazon #1 category bestseller.

Alongside his clinical and academic work, he serves as Founding President of I AM Regen, the International Association of Musculoskeletal Regeneration. The association brings clinicians and scientists together to support education, research, collaboration and the development of professional consensus in musculoskeletal regeneration.

Building on his engineering background, Professor Lee founded the MSK Computer Vision Lab and developed MAI Motion, a camera-based system that uses artificial intelligence to analyse movement without wearable markers. Its measurements can support clinical assessment and help track changes in physical function during recovery. His imaging research includes onMRI, which explores quantitative analysis of musculoskeletal MRI, including cartilage and the meniscus, to develop detailed measurements for research into joint health.

Trusted by elite athletes — from Premier League footballers to Olympic medallist Sharron Davies MBE — he welcomes patients seeking treatment or a specialist second opinion on complex knee, hip and cartilage problems, in person in London and Lincolnshire or by remote consultation for international patients.

His main areas of expertise include:

• Cartilage repair & regeneration (knee, hip, ankle, shoulder)
• Joint preservation & alternatives to joint replacement
• Arthrosamid injection for knee osteoarthritis
• Liquid Cartilage / ChondroFiller
• NanoACi — single-stage, needle-delivered cartilage repair combining the patient’s own cartilage micrografts, a collagen scaffold and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) prepared from their blood
• Tissue-specific regenerative treatments — NanoATi for tendons, NanoAMi for the meniscus and NanoALi for ligaments
• STACi — single-stage cartilage cell implantation (ACI/MACI)
• Regenerative injections: PRP, PRF, BMAC, mFat, cell-based therapies
• ACL repair (STARR) & reconstruction, sports knee injuries
• Meniscus repair & preservation
• SPAIRE muscle-sparing hip replacement & hip preservation
• Knee replacement (TWIS-TKR, robotic & computer-assisted)
• Sports & soft-tissue surgery (hamstring, Achilles, ACJ, Gilmore's groin)
• Complex second opinions