Cell Therapy to Help the Body Repair a Torn Meniscus

CellULAR Treatment FOR meniscus tears IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY ROUTINE.

The meniscus is the knee’s shock absorbers, protecting cartilage from the trauma of jumping, running, lifting and weight bearing. Sometimes with lifting and/or a quick change of direction, the meniscus can tear, resulting in knee pain. 90% of the meniscus, called the White Zone, has a poor blood supply and does not do well with surgical repair.

Only the outer 10% of the meniscus, called the Red Zone, has a good blood supply and can be surgically sutured and repaired. However, any surgical trimming of the meniscus will lead to early knee arthritis or wearing down of the cartilage and joint breakdown.

All of our minimally invasive outpatient treatments have the goal of regenerating cells, alleviating pain, improving function and ultimately reducing or eliminating our patients’ suffering. We provide the latest cutting-edge and low-risk alternatives to invasive surgeries, allowing our patients to avoid those associated risks and long recovery times.

Meniscus Anatomy

Surgery for meniscus tears is only suitable in a very small number of cases:
1. Small tears in the outer 10% of the meniscus known as the red zone.
2. Any knee injury with knee joint locking.

If you have knee pain due to a meniscus tear (without knee locking), cellular therapy may be an excellent and best alternative to helping your body repair a torn meniscus.

Other alternatives for the treatment of meniscus tears all have significant problems:
1. Surgical trimming of the meniscus (meniscectomy) leads to early knee joint arthritis and joint breakdown.
2. Steroid injections have been shown to be ineffective in treating long term knee pain and those patients who have had steroid joint injections do much worse after joint replacement .
3. Gel injections may provide temporary knee pain relief, but regenerative medicine procedures have been shown to have better results than gel injections.

Why avoid Steroid Injections into a joint?

Steroid injections can reduce kneejoint pain by reducing inflammation, but result in long term cartilage breakdown, worsening knee arthritis in the long run¹. Steroid injections are at best temporary fixes,but they literally “kick the can down the road” leading to more knee joint damage in the future. Those who have had steroid injections in a joint have also been shown to have worse results with subsequent joint replacement².

What about gel injections in the knee?

Gel injections in the knee also temporarily reduce the inflammatory environment in the knee joint. This effect lasts for a maximum of approximatelysix months in most people. As the knee joint becomes more arthritic, the gel becomes less effective. Gel does not affect your cellularhealing mechanisms. In fact, platelet rich plasma injections have been demonstrated to provide longer and better pain relief in arthritic joints than gel³.

¹ Effect of intra-articular Triamcinolone vs Saline on knee cartilage volume and pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A randomized clinical trial; McAlindon TE, LaValley MP, Harvey WF, Price LL, Driban JB, Zhang M1 Ward RJ.; JAMA. 2017 May 16;317(19):1967-1975. doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.5283. Link to Article

²Intrarticular hip injection and early revision surgery following total hip arthroplasty: a retrospective cohort study; Ravi B1, Escott BG, Wasserstein D, Croxford R, Hollands S, Paterson JM, Kreder HJ, Hawker GA.; Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015 Jan;67(1):162-8. doi: 10.1002/art.38886. Link to Article

³Intra-articular injection of two different doses of autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells versus hyaluronic acid in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial (phase I/II); Lamo-Espinosa JM, Mora G, Blanco JF, Granero-Moltó F, Nuñez-Córdoba JM,Et Al., J Transl Med. 2016 Aug 26;14(1):246. doi: 10.1186/s12967-016-0998-2. Link to article

ENJOY LIFE AGAIN WITHOUT JOINT PAIN OR SURGERY

Find out if you are eligible for our treatments.

Is Orthobiological Cell Treatment Right For You?

Although Orthobiologic Treatments are considered by some people to be experimental, various research studies show that cellular therapy and platelet rich plasma injections may provide excellent relief from joint and musculoskeletal pain and ongoing inflammation.