Regenerative Medicine

If you have ever had a chron­ic joint or ten­don injury you know how frus­trat­ing it can be. It can decrease your mobil­i­ty, result­ing in more mus­cle weak­ness and increased pain. This can then decrease your ener­gy, increase feel­ings of depres­sion and anx­i­ety and over­all reduce your qual­i­ty of life. 

For­tu­nate­ly, there are many treat­ment options avail­able to treat this type of prob­lem. Depend­ing on your med­ical his­to­ry and con­di­tion, your physi­cian may rec­om­mend use of regen­er­a­tive med­i­cine as a non-sur­gi­cal option to treat your joint or tis­sue pain. Regen­er­a­tive med­i­cine is the prac­tice of har­ness­ing your body’s abil­i­ty to heal itself by stim­u­lat­ing repair and thus regen­er­at­ing cells or tis­sues to restore nor­mal func­tion. We explore some of these treat­ments below.

Platelet-Rich Plas­ma Injec­tion (PRP)

What is Platelet-Rich Plas­ma Injec­tion (PRP)?

PRP injec­tions use your body’s own blood, spun down to select out the heal­ing qual­i­ties of the plas­ma and platelets to encour­age the heal­ing of injured lig­a­ments, ten­dons, mus­cles and joints. The plas­ma is inject­ed direct­ly into the injured or dam­aged area under spe­cial image guid­ance to pro­mote heal­ing and growth of healthy tissue.

What does it treat? 

• Osteoarthri­tis of the knee, shoul­der, hip & spine

• Chron­ic ten­don injuries, includ­ing ten­nis elbow
• Chron­ic plan­tar fasciitis
• Knee injuries

What are its benefits?

• Relief from acute and chron­ic pain
• Accel­er­at­ed heal­ing of injured tis­sue and joints
• Repaired tis­sue and stim­u­la­tion of your body’s nat­ur­al heal­ing processes

Alpha-2-Macroglob­u­lin Injec­tion (A2M)

What is Alpha-2-Macroglob­u­lin Injec­tion (A2M)?

A2M is a nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring mol­e­cule, found in your blood, that helps pre­vent car­ti­lage break­down. Once inject­ed into the joint at the source of pain, this mol­e­cule attach­es to and removes pro­teas­es (destruc­tive enzymes) that dam­age car­ti­lage cells and tis­sues in joint and/​or disc space.

What does it treat?

• Joint pain
• Osteoarthri­tis

What are its benefits?

• Reduced or elim­i­nat­ed inflam­ma­tion and pain
• Pre­ven­tion of fur­ther tis­sue breakdown
• Restored joint health
• Delayed or pre­vent­ed surgery

Bone Mar­row Aspiration

What is Bone Mar­row Aspiration? 

Bone Mar­row Aspi­rate (BMA) is derived from your own bone mar­row, the spongy tis­sue found inside bones, that is the rich­est source of stem cells in your body. These stem cells are inject­ed into the site of injury or dam­age to prompt rapid restora­tion of the tis­sue, stim­u­lat­ing your body’s nat­ur­al heal­ing response. 

What does it treat?

• Osteoarthri­tis
• Joint injuries – knees, hips, shoul­ders, elbows, ankles, wrists, fin­gers, toes
• Soft tis­sue injuries – ten­nis elbow, plan­tar fasci­itis, rota­tor cuff

What are the benefits?

• Found in abun­dant qual­i­ties and renews through cell division
• Has poten­tial to regen­er­ate tis­sue, bone or cartilage
• Can be safe­ly and effec­tive­ly transplanted
• Per­formed as a min­i­mal­ly inva­sive procedure
• Low­er risk of infec­tion as injec­tion uses mate­ri­als from your own body

If you’re expe­ri­enc­ing pain, or would like to talk to one of our orthopaedic spe­cial­ists to learn more about regen­er­a­tive med­i­cine options, please click here to sched­ule an appoint­ment online.