@rorygrabowsky, I'm not sure if your question was to me or @ellerbracke but for me if there was an alternative that would provide relief and it would last several years I would probably do the alternative unless the cost was prohibitive and not covered by most insurance like stem cell therapy. I think most of the alternatives are really more useful for younger adults but that's just my non medical opinion.

I would absolutely try stem cell therapy or similar before having a knee replacement if my other knee should get to that point. No matter how good the artificial knee works, and in my case it works extremely well, super flexible, occasional aches when overdoing things, or big weather changes, otherwise just fine - it is not the same as your original. Unfortunately, no surgeon will tell you about alternatives, and I did not do enough diligent research to know about them.