A Calgary man has made history after receiving the first transplant of live cartilage into his shoulder.

When Jim Chebib dislocated his shoulder five years ago, he kept on playing the game he loves. But he kept on re-injuring himself, ultimately dislocating his shoulder seven more times.

Cartilage, which acts as a cushion between the bones of a joint, doesn't regenerate once lost. As the condition deteriorates, the patient will eventually develop osteoarthritis.

As a result of his recurring injury, the 45-year-old soccer lover had lost bone mass, not to mention the mobility of his arm, when he got involved with Calgary doctor Mark Heard.

Since the transplant in March, Chebib is a changed man. Instead of dealing with a metal replacement joint, or facing the more frequent prescription of giving up sport altogether, he is back on the pitch enjoying a full range of motion in his shoulder.

"I can go back to soccer, not think about my shoulder, focus on my game," Chebib told CTV News.

The technique isn't entirely new, but as Dr. Heard explains, it is unique.

"What is new is the ability to use live cartilage as opposed to frozen cartilage or fresh frozen cartilage in transplantation around the body," Heard told CTV News.

Until now, the most common cartilage transplants involved dead cells that inevitably wear out in about five years. Live cartilage does not suffer the same issue.

But that's not the biggest breakthrough. Thanks to a new protocol developed at Calgary's McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health, the cartilage cells can be kept alive for weeks. Typically, human tissues such as hearts and kidneys have a shelf-life measured in hours.

"In the past there used to be a 72-hour window in which we could transplant tissue, now we have extended it to 30 days."

That not only allows more time for finding recipients, it also opens the door to scheduling non-life saving surgeries and even allows for tests for hepatitis, HIV or bacterial infection.

Heard has a waiting list of patients for the shoulder procedure. Eventually, he hopes to expand the technique to other joints as well as tackling arthritis.

With files from CTV's Janet Dirks