Degenerative Diseases
Stem Cell Procedures are breakthrough, non-surgical stem-cell treatments for people suffering from knee pain due to common injuries to the knee meniscus, ACL or MCL, cartilage, or who are experiencing degenerative conditions, such as osteoarthritis. Traditional options for patients suffering from these conditions include arthroscopic knee surgery to repair ligament tears, or total knee joint replacement. With both surgeries, months of rehab are required, and the patient must be aware of and prepared to take on the risks. As an alternative, Stem Cell Therapy (same-day) procedure may help alleviate knee pain and the conditions that cause it with a simple office injection procedure.
If you are suffering from a joint injury, joint pain, a non-healing fracture or a degenerative condition like osteoarthritis, you may be a good candidate for these ground-breaking stem cell and blood platelet treatments.
PRP or Platelet Rich Plasma has hit the mainstream media. PRP is a mix of concentrated platelets and serum. Surgeons have known for years that healing depends on platelets. These very tiny blood components are rich in growth factors and help form a blood clot during injury. When you injure an area like a ligament or a muscle, they seep into the wound during the bleeding that normally occurs. They then set up a blood clot to stop the bleeding and start to release growth factors to the area to coordinate a repair response. Over the first week or so, they act as a time release “pill” that secretes various growth factors at various times. These time release growth factors do things like bring in stem cells and bring in new blood vessels to ensure that the body can get more blood to the area. So PRP is generally good for helping things that may either heal on their own (given enough time) or are maybe stuck in the healing process and need a little “kick” to get things going towards resolution.
While PRP may help recruit a few stem cells to the area, stem cell injection therapy is much more advanced. For orthopedics in particular, if PRP is like adding additional fertilizer and water to the plant, mesenchymal stem cells (MSC’s) are like placing new seeds in the area and hiring a gardener.