British scientists have identified a type of stem cell treatment which offers hope to the patients of osteoarthritis. The technique, which uses a patient's own stem cells to replace lost cartilage, is already being tried out on goats and would soon be tested on humans as early as next year.

Researchers have identified a type of stem cell which can be transformed into cartilage cells known as chondrocytes. If the scientists succeed in creating new chondrocytes in sufficient numbers, it would be possible to achieve a real therapeutic effect for osteoarthritis patients

An Indian hospital has successfully performed Asia's first artificial heart transplant on a 54-year-old man. A team of doctors from Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital in Bangalore, under the guidance of their counterparts of University of Minnesota, the U.S., successfully performed the transplant on Venkata Krishnaiah, a chronic diabetic and heart patient on March 20th.

The surgeons implanted a ventricular assist device, or VAD, in the patient in a four-hour surgery. The device, measuring 60 millimetres (2.4 inches) in diameter and weighing 298 grams (10 ounces), is implanted in the lower part of the chest below the heart, AFP reports

A domino paired exchange kidney surgery was successfully performed at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The unusual medical procedure is part of creative ways doctors are tapping to go around kidney rejection problems.

The successful Chicago medical procedure was immediately followed by a six-way paired exchange at the John Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, the largest paired exchange in renal medical history

A new non-invasive prenatal DNA diagnosis to assess the baby's Rhesus-D negative (RhD) status can now save the RhD negative women from painful injections. Around 100,000 pregnant women a year are found to be RhD negative, posing risk for the baby.

Currently, all women who test RhD negative at routine antenatal checks are given one or two antiserum injections during the pregnancy. But scientists say an easy, rapid test to assess the baby's RhD status means more than a third of RhD negative women can skip the injections. Trial results of the test are reported in the British Medical Journal

Two of four patients who received donated organs from a boy whose death was belatedly diagnosed as caused by lymphoma cancer have died while two others survived after the timely removal of the diseased organs.

The rare incident in 2007 was reported in the January issue of the American Journal of Transplantation. According to the report, the parents of 15-year-old Alex Koehne decided to donate the liver, pancreas and kidneys of their son immediately after his death in March 2007 from what doctors at the Stony Brook University Medical Center believed was bacterial meningitis