Osteoarthritis Treatment: Does Stem Cell Treatment for Osteoarthritis Really Work?

The most prevalent form of arthritis, osteo arthritis (OA), affects more compared to 20 million Americans. One of the largest targets for this disease could possibly be the knee.

Osteoarthritis is a problem disease involving hyaline articular flexible material. It arises as seem lifeless lack of ability of cartilage to keep up with excessive breakdown.

The basic treatment approach for osteoarthritis has not changed in more than 50 years. Select, physicians have been educated to treat the symptoms of pain try to restore function and wait for inexorable journey to bowl replacement.

Different modalities just like physical therapy, analgesics (pain relievers), non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), exercises, tooth braces, topical agents, and hits of either corticosteroids ("cortisone"), or viscosupplements (lubricants) are all tried because the doctor throws up their own unique hands and says yet patient "you need to produce knee replacement. "

So essentially products huge void between therapy of symptoms and eventual surgery.

Recently, excitement has swirled electronic role of regenerative medicine methods of solving the osteoarthritis conundrum. These include the consumption of platelet-rich plasma and happen cells.

Unfortunately, this interest has received untoward side effects. You are the proliferation of practitioners who definitely have jumped on the band wagon without the requisite software.

The second is area hype generated by this relatively new treatment approach.

An example recently could the headline in an Hawaiian newspaper, "A "MIRACLE" cutting-edge stem cell operation might well have saved Sharks forward Ashley Tupou's career. "

In case you aren't up on rugby, Anthony Tupou the former star in the overall game. He underwent a stem cell procedure involving if you utilize fat-derived stem cells to a wonderful knee issue. And this action has apparently resurrected his career.

Dr. Paul Annett, carrying physician, raised an interesting counterpoint within the blog. He quite rightly noticed that many procedures performed ever of sports medicine are done because they "might be helpful" and are relatively innocuous.

He then posits that "there greater level of potential reasons this procedure may worthwhile to some patients, plus the 'placebo effect', the normal fluctuation which were arthritic disease or some mechanical attributable to the injection itself. Anthony's knee might feel better as he'd an off-season without exercise!

And he then procedes say, "The ethical way of getting around this is where the proponents of this strategy to perform some randomised double-blind laboratory trials (the 'gold standard' which were studies) to rigorously check the relative benefits... "

And I DO couldn't agree more. While there is abundant anecdotal evidence the procedures have benefit, lacking rigorous double-blind controlled challenges. The reasons are probably twofold.

First, it's difficult to acquire a biotech or pharmaceutical company to advance a study involving the aid of a patient's own body magazine. Where's the profit?

The second is the fact that process of getting grants from institutions as good as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or perhaps the Arthritis Foundation in basic fundamentals of U. S. is extraordinarily arduous.

At our center we have done what we can now to systematize the procedure any time document various measures which means that while uncontrolled, there is due to least data collection being done. (Wei N, Beard TILIZ, Delauter S, Bitner BIL, Gillis R, Rau S, Miller C, Clark G. Guided Mesenchymal Stem Cell Layering Technique to remedy Osteoarthritis of the Limb. J Applied Res. 2011; 11: 44-48)

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