STEM CELLS
Osteoarthritis is a disease that produces progressive degeneration of the structure of articular cartilage. It can affect any joint in the body causing inflammation, pain and deformity to a variable degree.
On many occasions it progresses slowly, does not require treatment or can be controlled by medication or physiotherapy, in others it causes pain and significant difficulty walking and in advanced stages it even requires the implantation of a prosthesis.
Treatment of knee osteoarthritis with stem cells
The treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee with mesenchymal stem cells has achieved significant relief of pain and difficulty walking in more than 90% of patients with advanced osteoarthritis treated.
The improvement of pain and functional disability is experienced between 1 and 3 months after the completion of the treatment and follows a progressive improvement both after the first and the second year
Through a Magnetic Resonance procedure called T2 mapping, it has been confirmed that the treatment of knee osteoarthritis with mesenchymal stem cells has the ability to stop the progressive loss of joint cartilage and produce a regenerative effect on it.
How is the treatment of knee osteoarthritis with mesenchymal stem cells carried out?
Beforehand, at no cost, the medical team assesses whether the treatment is indicated through the history, examination and study of the X-rays and T2 mapping magnetic resonance imaging.
If so, preoperative studies are performed: blood tests that include serological studies to detect previous infections, chest X-ray and electrocardiogram.
If the results of the tests carried out are correct, the patient is told the two processes to be carried out:
First stage: Obtaining bone marrow
The patient, fasting for six hours, in an outpatient operating room, is placed face down and performs the antiseptic preparation.
Under local anesthesia and light sedation, similar to that used in colonoscopy, about 100 cc of bone marrow (a tenth of a liter) are aspirated from the pelvic bone (buttock). The whole process takes about 25 minutes.
Local cold is applied and the patient is transferred to the recovery room where he remains for about twenty minutes, after which he is discharged.
24 hours of relative rest is recommended.
The bone marrow is sent to the cell therapy laboratory where it follows a selection and cultivation process for about 3 weeks, after which it provides doctors with the product made up of 40 million stem cells, a product considered an advanced therapy drug.
Second stage: Cell inoculation in the knee or other joint
The patient, fasting for six hours, is admitted to the outpatient surgery operating room.
After the antiseptic preparation, the cell product is injected into the joint (same procedure as infiltration of any medication). A simple dressing is applied. He remains in the recovery room for about 10 minutes and is discharged.
Almost absolute rest for 48 hours and relative rest for a week is recommended.
Subsequently, according to the evolution, the controls and rehabilitation guidelines are personalized.