Treating knee arthritis is not always easy. Arthritis affects people differently. Therefore a patient and disease specific approach needs to be followed. You can’t expect that three steroid injections, physical therapy, Advil and a brace is going to help everybody. You also cannot expect everybody to do well with a knee replacement. In some cases regenerative medicine options such as PRP, Lipogems or stem cells can make a big difference. Here is a nice review article discussing cutting-edge concentrated bone marrow aspirate. The outcome of this review is positive. Bone Marrow Concentrate for the delivery of adult stem cells can help knee arthritis.
Not all doctors who treat arthritis are believers. On average it takes 10 years for new concepts and ideas to become accepted. Not all doctors offer patients regenerative options. Part of the reason is that they are still waiting for the proof to be more solid. Or perhaps they prefer to treat patients with a total knee replacement.
Here’s some proof that adult stem cell treatment is not a passing trend but helpful for the treatment of arthritis.
If you have arthritis of the knee and you are not yet ready for a total knee replacement or perhaps you are too young to have a knee replacement you may want to consider either platelet rich plasma or bone marrow concentrate.