When It Comes To Knee Pain, Cellular Injections for Knee Pain May Be The Way To Go...
Knee pain and knee osteoarthritis can be unbearable to live with. And–at the risk of sounding obvious–the whole point of seeking treatment is to alleviate this pain. However, with traditional treatments like knee replacement surgery, patients were apt to experience even more pain before they could get better. Luckily, with the recent boom in the regenerative medicine field, there have been revolutionary advancements in treating knee pain by harvesting the body’s own healing abilities. One of these treatments being PRP Stem Cell injections for knee pain. Best of all- these treatments have shown to have better potential at mitigating knee joint pain at a faster rate.
The two most popular regenerative elements that have been making headlines are Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP)- which is derived from blood, and Stem Cells- which are most commonly derived from fat or bone tissues. It may come as a surprise to some that these elements are simply taken from the patient’s own body, but one should not be so quick to dismiss the apparent simplicity of these PRP Stem Cell injections for knee pain, or to underestimate the body’s powerful regenerative abilities. In fact, a 2015 study involving 1,114 participants found that “SVF [Stromal Vascular Fraction] cell application revealed at least 50% improvement of hip or knee joint after treatment in 80.6% of patients at 3 months. The Score further improved in time to 12 months of the follow-up to 91.0%”. [1]
Now compare that study to another recent study consisting of 272 participants that looked at the percentage of patients who still had ongoing knee pain 1 year after undergoing knee replacement surgery. The study found that 107 patients–out of all 272 patients who responded–still had chronic pain 1 year post-surgery. That is nearly 40% of patients! Not to mention that on a pain scale rating from 0-10 (0 being no pain, and 10 being unbearable pain), some of these participants still reported their pain being as high as a 5 out of 10. [2]
Although PRP Stem Cell injections for knee pain are a fairly recent practice, they have shown to be less time consuming, less painful, and can eventually save you money in the long run.
Sources:
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25706817
[2] http://www.healio.com/orthopedics/journals/ortho/2016-1-39-1/%7B90c9f37e-7f11-45d6-9a0a-85db1643d31b%7D/risk-assessment-for-chronic-pain-and-patient-satisfaction-after-total-knee-arthroplasty#x01477447-20151228-06-bibr19