Top Regenerative therapies in orthopedics
In recent years, doctors have learned that the body has the ability to heal itself. Regenerative medicine can harness those abilities and amplify the natural growth factors your body uses to heal tissue.
These are the top regenerative therapies in orthopedics.
Platelet-rich plasma
Platelets are a small disk-shaped cell fragments without a nucleus, found in the blood and involved in clotting. In PRPtherapy, whole blood is removed from the patient and sent through a centrifuge to remove the red blood cells and other unwanted cells.. Platelets, also called thrombocytes, are rich in proteins. These activated and concentrated platelets are then injected directly into injured or diseased body tissue to help accelerate healing.
PRP has been investigated as a treatment for chronic tendinitis, osteoarthritis, and increasingly for sports injuries, among other procedures. PRP therapy uses injections of a concentration of a patient’s own platelets to accelerate the healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles, and joints. In this way, PRP injections use each individual patient's own healing system to improve musculoskeletal problems.
PRP therapy is an outpatient procedure, and the injection takes around 30 minutes.
Lipoaspirates
Also called adipose-derived cell therapy, lipoaspirates therapy is a regenerative injection treatment that stimulates repair of osteoarthritic cartilage and bone using liposuctioned fat cells(adipose). Fat cells have many natural reparative characteristics that help to promote healing. Liposuction is minimally invasive, and most people have extra fat to begin with. These fat cells can act like stem cells for the repair of injured or damaged tissue.
According to studies, “Research has shown that as a person ages, their fat maintains its reparative properties unlike other similar tissue, such as bone marrow, which may lose healing capacity with age.”
This is a minimally invasive outpatient procedure as an option to major, invasive orthopedic surgery.
Preparation for a lipoaspirate procedure.
Bone marrow aspiration concentrate
Bone marrow aspiration concentrate therapy is a non-surgical procedure using the patient’s own stem cells and growth factors to help “repair damaged tissue, reduce pain, and promote healing,” according to Emory Healthcare.
During the procedure bone marrow cells are taken from the patient’s body and centrifuged. They are then injected into the patient’s injured or diseased joint or tendon. According to Emory, “Since the cells are from the patient’s own body there is no risk of rejection.’
Bone marrow aspiration concentrate is part of bone marrow that contains growth factors and anti-inflammatory proteins. Thesepromote bone and soft tissue healing as well as reduce symptoms of pain related to injuries, tendinitis, and arthritis.
In the right patient, this is another outpatient procedure as an alternative to invasive surgery.
All three therapies harness the body’s own power to heal itself using the patient’s own platelets, fat cells, or bone marrow cells to remedy musculoskeletal problems that previously have only been rectified through invasive surgery with prolonged recovery times. Regenerative medicine has seen significant growth and breakthroughs in recent years, reducing patient suffering and increasing the effectiveness of post-procedural physical therapy.