Stem Cell Therapy on Knees

Stem cell therapy is the current source of regenerative medicine to create or repair and restore living tissue and organs. It’s goal has been to restore damaged tissue and organs in patients with serious injuries or chronic disease where the body does not provide sufficient renewal processes. 

Stem cells are special human cells found in the body that can develop into various cell types. Stem cells are collected from the bone marrow of a human located towards the back of the patient's pelvis. Bone marrow is a bloody substance that is extracted using a small needle. The bone marrow contains mesenchymal stem cells, used for tissue repair, platelets and other growth factors. Once this is introduced back into the body in the desired area, the stem cells and growth factors work together to repair damaged cells and regenerate new healthy ones. The most effective method with the least chance of bad reaction is for a patient to use their own adult stem cells from their body, extract and relocate the sample into the damaged tissue. 

Recent studies have shown that stem cells can be used to regenerate and relieve knee pain. Impairment of the knee can significantly impact your quality of life, causing difficulties in everyday tasks. Until stem cells, the options for knee pain were steroid injections, physical therapy or knee replacement surgery. Now, stem cell therapy is a potential less straining and drastic measure to improve your knee. Knee pain can be caused by a multitude of factors ranging from fractures, ligament injuries, tendon tears to chronic diseases such as Arthritis and Iliotibial band syndrome all causing some sort of pain due to inflammation, tenderness or tears in the muscles. 

Stem cell therapy for knees is still very new but studies seem to be promising with results showing patients that can avoid surgery with minimal side effects. Take arthritis for example; it is one of the major disability causes in the United States. It develops when the cartilage lining on joints start to deteriorate. Overtime, due to age, a person can develop arthritis in their knee or any other joint causing pain and limited function. Every year, approximately 600,000 patients in America receive knee replacement surgery. That number will keep growing, but thanks to stem cell therapy, knee pain and cartilage repair can reduce the chronicity of arthritis. Cartilage promotes smooth movement of the joint surface, allowing protection for bones from up to 20 times the shock of the body weight. Researchers believe injections allow stem cells to develop into essential cartilage cells, thwarting inflammation to reduce pain and relelate cytokine proteins that slow degeneration of cartilage. 

The cost of treatment ranges from approximately $3,000 to $5,000 per knee depending on the location. Unfortunately, most insurances do not cover stem cell injections, but that may change with the increased amount of research showing the effectiveness of the procedure. In the process, the patient completes the procedure in one visit in about two to three hours but is required to have an initial visit for consultation and then a follow up appointment after the procedure. 

We are at the infancy of stem cell therapy and have the potential to provide ground breaking results in more effective noninvasive procedures with less side effects. There is ongoing research on the use of stem cells that hopefully will continue to provide new restoration methods for various tissue damage or deterioration in the body. 

References:

https://www.healthline.com/health/stem-cell-therapy-for-knees

https://www.floridamedicalclinic.com/blog/stem-cell-therapy-for-knee-pain/

https://www.paulmeli.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-knee-replacement-surgery/