Anyone heard of stem cell injections for bad knees?

KateA2017

Anyone heard of procedure where the take your blood spin it and separate out stem cells and then inject them into your knees that are bone on bone lose of cartilage?

kimothy38

Yes. My mother in law swears by it for her arthritis.

Packerjohn

From reading, looks like some promise. Be careful though, seems as most insurance does not cover stand alone injections it since still considered somewhat experimental.

cityruss

Funnily enough I was reading about this over breakfast...

http://www.uhs.nhs.uk/AboutTheTrust/Newsandpublications/Latestnews/2014/Surgeons-create-new-knee-cartilage-from-stem-cells-in-hip.aspx

animatorswearbras

I thought you could only get stem cells from drilling through bone and extracting them from your bone marrow? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong though.

Edit or from the umbilical cord (unfortunately I think mines long gone :P)

lorrpb

Yes, Olympic champion Brian Boitano just had that done!

Alatariel75

lorrpb wrote: »

Yes, Olympic champion Brian Boitano just had that done!

I cannot think of Brian Boitano without getting this song stuck in my head:

KateA2017

Thanks for info sounds like its not uncommon just not the norm yet.

KNoceros

In the U.K. this tends to be k own as "PRP" injections. Platelet Rich Plasma. The medical evidence is patchy at best.

cityruss

kathrynhoward84 wrote: »

In the U.K. this tends to be k own as "PRP" injections. Platelet Rich Plasma. The medical evidence is patchy at best.

Platelet rich plasma and stem cells therapies are two different things.

Prp is a stimulant of the healing process where stem cell therapy is used in an attempt to create new tissues.

KNoceros

Ok. Sorry to have confused.

tomteboda

They did this with my mom's knees when she had surgery on them. I don't think it helped any, her knees never recovered at any rate.

brookielaw

Yes. I need knee replacements due to OA but am too young. Several years ago I was getting the synthetic synovial fluid injections (Euflexxa, they also do rooster comb) but it was not approved for pregnant women so when I got pregnant, stem cells were the next option. Insurance wouldn't cover them (yet) and the baby's production of stem cells alleviated a lot of the OA aches and pains so I didn't follow through. I'm setting up an appointment with the ortho today to see what my options are now. My knees are killing me after the tri I did a couple of weeks ago and I've got more living to do!

kshama2001

cityruss wrote: »

kathrynhoward84 wrote: »

In the U.K. this tends to be k own as "PRP" injections. Platelet Rich Plasma. The medical evidence is patchy at best.

Platelet rich plasma and stem cells therapies are two different things.

Prp is a stimulant of the healing process where stem cell therapy is used in an attempt to create new tissues.

My aunt swears by one of these, not sure which, but then she used to swear by forment water* so...

*That was pre internet so you won't find anything and don't ask me to explain, other than it was an MLM involving magical water lol.

kshama2001

kathrynhoward84 wrote: »

In the U.K. this tends to be k own as "PRP" injections. Platelet Rich Plasma. The medical evidence is patchy at best.

Here's an article about this: https://www.painscience.com/articles/platelet-rich-plasma-does-it-work.php

leslie9797

I had PRP done on my upper hamstring tendon. I'm 16 weeks out and running again. However, my dad - a longtime runner who has bone-on-bone in one of his knees - saw my same doc and it will not work for him. It does not regenerate cartilage. It tends to work better with tendon damage.

lemmie177

My dad had this done 2 months ago on one of his knees. All I know is it wasn't covered by his insurance and now he's drinking some $100-a-bottle collagen concoction from the doctor. I hope it works. Last time I saw him, he was still healing and moving slow.