Special Announcement - Now Screening for FDA Approved Stem Cell Study
Dr. Mitchell Sheinkop has completed training and is credentialed for an FDA-approved stem cell clinical trial for knee arthritis. Our clinic is now screening patients for this trial. Contact us at 312-475-1893 for details. Click here to learn more.
Patient Online Resources for Biologic Therapies

Patient Online Resources for Biologic Therapies

As interest in biologic therapies for arthritis-a needle, not a knife-continues to expand; patients increasingly are turning to the ads in newspapers or searching the Internet to gather information on this topic. While there is still a lack of scientific consensus on the use of biologics, it is most important for those seeking information not to be misled. My own analysis of resources for patients seeking on line information about biologic therapies for arthritis is that the overall quality is very poor and anything but scientific. Even worse, is a seminar, neither a reliable or credible source of scientific evidence.

Biologic therapies consist of stem cells, platelet rich plasma product and bone marrow aspirate concentrate. New research, I co-authored and that was published last month in The American Journal of Orthopedics:  Safety and Efficacy of Micro-Fractured Adipose Tissue for Knee Arthritis, is indicative of the ever-evolving nature of Regenerative Medicine. Biologic therapies and their use in arthritis or musculoskeletal injury in general are an area of vast research and interest within the medical field. Understanding the information online and the misinformation provided at seminars pertaining to biologics allows me to tailor my conversation and address commonly found inaccuracies.

The use of Biologic Therapies is expected to significantly increase in the coming years as our knowledge advances on the use of such. That initiative will be led by well informed, well-educated Board Certified, and Fellowship trained specialists. Unfortunately owing to the relative lack of oversite at present, every type of charlatan, parasite and camp follower can buy an ad for a seminar or produce a web site on the internet. How then should a patient with pain and limited function from arthritis seek to postpone or avoid surgery without becoming a victim of the cord blood or amniotic fluid hoax?

  1. Your physician must complete a comprehensive medical history, physical examination and review of diagnostic studies.
  2. Explain the disease process and grade of progression,
  3. Discuss possible treatment options,
  4. Present a balanced assessment of the current scientific evidence.

Woe, while writing this Blog, I was just notified about acceptance of yet another scientific article by a peer reviewed medical journal in which I am the senior author: A Specific Protocol of Autologous Bone Marrow Concentrate and Platelet Products Versus Exercise Therapy for Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis; a Randomized Control Trial with 2 Year Follow-up.

Hopefully some time soon, a Biologic Arthroplasty will be possible; but until then, a Total Joint Replacement is still a necessary option for those not meeting specified inclusion criteria for biologics. To see what treatments may be possible for your arthritic generated pain call (312) 475-1893 to schedule a consultation. Visit my website www.SheinkopMD.com for additional information. 

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On the results of injecting Bone Marrow Concentrate into the joint and into the adjacent bone for osteoarthritis

On the results of injecting Bone Marrow Concentrate into the joint and into the adjacent bone for osteoarthritis

Options for treating patients with osteoarthritis of their joints are historically limited to pain medication, anti-inflammatory medications, steroids, physical therapy, chiropractic care, or any combination thereof. These treatments provide temporary symptom relieving care, but do not offer therapeutic benefit in altering the degenerative disease progression. While pain medication, steroids and anti-inflammatories may help temporarily with pain management, they do not have a long-lasting impact on healing of articular cartilage in the arthritic joint. Without a regenerative therapy, the osteoarthritis will continue to progress, and ultimately will result in a total joint replacement as the only option to manage pain. While the majority of joint replacements have proven successful, there is an inherent complication risk; sufficiently significant enough that a patient prior to surgery might want to look for a means of postponing, perhaps avoiding a joint replacement. A treatment that might slow or even reverse the degenerative process. Four and a half years into my Cellular Orthopedic initiative, I believe the evidence I have compiled supports the use of the patient’s own concentrated bone marrow derived cells (BMC) in combination with the patient’s own concentrated Platelets and Plasma as an alternative to a major joint replacement.

Accomplished in a surgi-center under local anesthesia, an intra-articular injection, with image confirmation of needle and orthobiologic placement, is performed with Concentrated Bone Marrow mixed with concentrated Platelets and Plasma. Recently, based on publications in the scientific literature, I have added a subchondroplasty, that is an injection of some Bone Marrow Concentrate and Platelet Rich Plasma Concentrate into the bone adjacent to the joint. After six months of having introduced the subchondroplasty when indicated to the intra-articular injection, the presumptive evidence encourages me to continue the combined procedure. I started with the knee and I have extended subchondroplasty to the hip and shoulder.  

When I began the combined procedure, that is injecting Bone Marrow Concentrate into the joint as well as into the bone adjacent to the joint, I limited the indication to patients under age 60. In August of 2016, a clinical paper was published reviewing the results of said interventions into patients older than 60; Total Knee Arthroplasty versus cell therapy in bilateral knee osteoarthritis in patients older than 85 years. Space doesn’t allow me to reproduce the entire article but in those patients who had a TKR on one side and a combined intervention into the knee and into the bone supporting the knee with Bone Marrow Concentrate, the majority of patients expressed a preference for the stem cell therapy.

To learn more or schedule an appointment, call (312) 475-1893

You may visit my blog posted on my website     www.sheinkopmd.com

You may view my webinar at     www.ilcellulartherapy.com

 

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The role Growth Factors play in Regenerative Medicine

The role Growth Factors play in Regenerative Medicine

Growth factor, any of a group of proteins that stimulate the growth of specific tissues. Growth factors play an important role I promoting cellular differentiation and cell division,” and they occur in bone marrow as well as your circulating blood.

“When investigators began studying the effects of biological substances on cells and tissues in culture, they discovered a group of peptide-hormone-like substances that were distinct from any previously known hormones. Because these substances were active in stimulating the growth of cells and tissues, they were called growth factors. Some growth factors are similar to hormones in that they can be secreted into the blood stream, which carries them to their target tissues. However, whereas the production of hormones is limited to glandular tissue, growth factors can be produced by many different types of tissue” and cells for that matter.

When a patient presents for a Bone Marrow Concentrate procedure for an arthritic joint in order to prevent, perhaps even avoid a joint replacement, the understanding to date is that it will be Mesenchymal Stem Cell that will serve as the key factor in reducing pain, increasing motion, improving function and influencing the progression of arthritis. The latter is only partially true but fails to address the role Growth Factors play in Cellular Orthopedics (Regenerative Medicine). When your orthopedic surgeon tells you that Stem Cells won’t work for your arthritis, schedule your joint replacement, that physician doesn’t understand that Stem cells are only part of what Bone Marrow concentrate provides us in assisting the patient with an arthritic joint, return to an active life style without surgery.

We now have several proprietary means of not only concentrating adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells but Growth Factors as well when addressing your arthritic joint with Bone Marrow Concentrate. While stem cells may be impacted by age, Growth Factors do not seem to be adversely impacted accounting for several recent successes with patients in their 90s. Since we have been concentrating stem cells with growth factors and combining the approach to the joint with subchondroplasty, we continue to document improving outcomes

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