Your knee comprises different parts that help you move. These include cushioning bursae, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bone. If any or several of these components are compromised, say by medical conditions like arthritis or tendinitis, you can develop knee problems. Resultant complications like stiff joints, joint pain, and a limited range of motion can make everyday activities very difficult. And when conservative and traditional treatments fail to offer relief, your doctor may recommend several regenerative medicine Livingston solutions. The top options may include:
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP)
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a regenerative treatment that uses plasma from your body to promote natural healing. During the procedure, your doctor draws a sample of your blood and processes it at high speed in a centrifuge. This separates your platelets from other components in your blood to create a solution that they then inject into your knee joint. The platelet-rich plasma contains important growth factors that speed up your healing process, stimulate tissue regeneration, and promote cell division. In turn, these processes reduce knee pain and address the underlying cause of your knee problems.
Stem Cell Therapy
The ends of your knee joints are covered in cartilage, which enables them to glide smoothly against each other. However, when you develop osteoarthritis, this cartilage breaks down, causing increased friction, pain, and inflammation in your knee joints. Stem cell therapy helps your body repair itself by stimulating your healing mechanisms. In theory, this treatment can be used to prevent the deterioration of the cartilage in the knees. It could also alleviate your pain and delay or prevent the need for surgery. Typically, your doctor draws your blood, concentrates the stem cells within it, and injects it back into your joint.
Prolotherapy
Like most of these therapies, prolotherapy involves injecting a solution into the body. However, no blood is involved in this process. Your doctor injects a safe glucose solution into the knee joint, where it causes irritation and prompts your body’s natural healing processes and defense. The idea is that your body naturally sends healing agents to the parts of your body that need them. Usually, the injection does not involve any steroids or drugs, but your doctor may add lidocaine to the solution for pain relief. Prolotherapy fights inflammation and pain while promoting tissue regeneration.
Amniotic Membrane Injections
As the name suggests, amniotic membrane injections use amniotic membrane tissue to promote healing. The tissue is usually extracted from the placenta of a willing mother after delivery. It contains powerful healing components like hyaluronic acid, cytokines, fibrinogen, collagen, and growth factors. When your doctor injects these into your knee joint, they can help alleviate pain and heal wounds.
Don’t Let Joint Pain Keep You Down
Knee pain can make everyday activities like exercising, walking, sitting, lifting, and driving excruciatingly painful. The situation can become even more hopeless when traditional and conservative treatments fail to provide any relief. However, before you schedule a knee replacement surgery, you should discuss regenerative treatments with your doctor. Find out what therapies they offer and how they might help alleviate your pain. Like most treatments, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to regenerative medicine, so you will need to work with your doctor to create a treatment regimen that works for you. Call today to learn more and schedule an appointment.
