Our patient in this video is 2 years after a single stem cell injection for knee arthritis. We only use bone marrow derived stem cells because any supposed “stem cell” injections from umbilical cord blood, or amniotic fluid or Wharton’s Jelly or placental tissues have been shown to not actually have living stem cells.
I have been repairing virtually all meniscus injuries and adding an orthobiologic injection to maximize healing. This combination of surgery + stem cells has been shown to result in better healing rates of the meniscus and allows me to “save” more meniscus tears for patients than I could before. The video is a 60 sec clip showing how we can repair a bad meniscal injury a young patient and get it to heal about 90% of the time by adding a stem cell injection.
Our patient has now had 2 good years with minimal knee pain after being told she needed a total knee replacement! All from a single injection of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) made from her own blood in the office. She now wants the other knee done :). Who wouldn’t!
30 second example of an obstructive meniscal tear that often continues to cause knee dysfunction despite nonsurgical treatment. The degenerative tears have been shown in multiple studies to get better most of the time without surgery, orthobiologics, or anything more than physical therapy. A meniscus tear diagnosis on a MRI reading is not a reason for any invasive procedure….rest, rehab….time…will allow most patients to return to their “baseline” knee function.
For problems where just an injection in the office won’t be enough, we can still harness the power of PRP or stem cells to try to improve surgical results. Here is a picture from a recent mensicus repair surgery where we are using PRP to try to get the entire torn meniscus to heal after being surgically repaired.
This patient is now 2.5 years out from a single in office injection of bone marrow derived stem cells. He has done fantastic and wants another in office procedure. He has happy to have avoided or at least significantly delayed a knee replacement surgery…which is what he had been told he needed.
The guy in the middle has a total knee replacement on one knee and has done very well from it…..14 years out…no problems…done by an expert joint replacement surgeon (not me). With the left knee, he failed to get symptom relief with medications and steroid shots (couple rounds) and viscosupplementation. He is now a golfer and ex pro baseball player and front row Lakers fan in this picture from the Staples Center last night.
At the Dallas PRP and Stem Cell Institute (dallasprpandstemcell.com) we are turning bad knees into good knees with an in office bone marrow derived stem cell injection....takes an hour...no surgery
This is a surgical video showing an interesting application of bone marrow derived stem cells + surgery(patellar chondroplasty) for a patient who had a lot of anterior knee pain from cartilage damage on her kneecap.
