Stem Cell Therapy
Stem cells are cells with the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the body. Under the right conditions in the body or a laboratory, stem cells divide to form more cells called daughter cells. Stem cells serve as a repair system for the body.
There are two main types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), doctors and scientists are excited about stem cells because they could help in many different areas of health and medical research. Studying stem cells may help explain how serious conditions such as birth defects and cancer come about. Stem cells may one day be used to make cells and tissues for therapy of many diseases. Examples include Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis.
Conditions Treated
Stem cell therapy is a medical treatment for a wide range of diseases and injuries. Stem cell therapy is used at Aptiva Health to treat orthopedic conditions. This process involves injecting a patient’s own processed bone marrow into an injured bone or joint. Bone marrow contains a certain type of stem cell that may help reduce inflammation, promote healing, and create healthy new tissue.
Stem cell therapy has successfully used for major orthopedic procedures in terms of bone-joint injuries (fractures-bone defects, nonunion, and spinal injuries), osteoarthritis-cartilage defects, ligament-tendon injuries, femoral head osteonecrosis and osteogenesis imperfecta. Stem cells have also used in bone tissue engineering in combining with the scaffolds and provided faster and better healing of tissues.
Below are a list of conditions treated with stem cell injections at Aptiva Health:
SPORTS INJURIES
Whether you rolled an ankle playing basketball or took a bad tackle to the knee, stem cell injections can work wonders for your joints and ligaments. Joint injuries can cause prolonged pain and discomfort if left untreated. By injecting stem cells into the joint, our sports medicine specialists promote the healing of individual ligaments and generally improve the range of motion and comfort of the entire joint.
DAMAGED MUSCLES
If you suffered a muscle tear, stem cell therapy can reduce your recovery time and promote quicker recovery from the affected muscle. Whether you were hurt lifting weights or from a hyperextension playing sports, your outcome can be vastly improved with stem cell therapy.
ARTHRITIS
Osteoarthritis, the most common form, has remained troublesome to treat. There is no cure for arthritis, and most treatments are palliative in nature. Stem cell therapy may provide a safe and lasting treatment option for patients suffering from arthritis-related pain.
TENDONITIS
Damaged tendons can be difficult to treat due to their hypovascular nature (meaning they do not get very much blood flow). The science is persuasive that stem cell injections are a highly successful treatment for tendon injuries (tendinopathy). These include tennis elbow (epicondylitis), rotator cuff injuries, “jumper’s knee” (patellar tendonitis), Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, and tendinosis, among others.
SURGERY
More recently, stem cell therapy has been used during certain types of surgery to help tissues heal. It was first thought to be beneficial in shoulder surgery to repair torn rotator cuff tendons.