I have been treating knee arthritis for nearly 20 years. I realized years ago that we were simply chasing patient’s symptoms with conservative management such as ice, NSAIDs, bracing, physical therapy, and injections.
Injections primarily consisted of corticosteroids which simply masked their discomfort while adding to the deterioration of their cartilage, thus making their arthritis worse. Viscosupplementation was a simple lubricant that rarely was effective enough on its own. While total knee replacement remains a very effective way of treating patients with severe bone on bone knee arthritis, nine out of 10 patients that present to me do not yet require surgery. Thus, we were simply chasing symptoms until that patient’s knee cartilage was so worn out that they needed a knee replacement.
In 2015 I began searching for an alternative for those patients stuck in what I called the “purgatory” of knee pain. Patient’s with enough arthritis to bother them, but not enough to warrant total knee replacement. Instead of injections that were ineffective, and potentially adding to their problem, I began using biologic-based injections and have had fantastic success.
Biologic injections consist of harvesting and concentrating cells from our own body (stem cells and growth factors) that are capable of naturally and biologically reducing pain and inflammation as well as repairing damaged cells. This has provided long lasting relief of discomfort and improved functioning for those patients suffering from mild to moderate knee arthritis, and rather than expediting further deterioration, in fact, provides cartilage protection moving forward.
