On Stem Cells, Bone Marrow Concentrate and Non-unions of Bones
With all of our attention directed to arthritis, patients need to be reminded of the continued successes we are experiencing when using Bone Marrow Concentrate in fractures that fail to heal. When a fracture fails to heal in the expected average time, that is a Delayed Union. When it looses the ability to heal all together, that’s a Non-Union. The reasons that a fracture might fail to heal are beyond the scope of this Blog but non-union is not a rare complication. Areas of predilection toward difficulty in healing have to do with blood supply. The upper end of the femur (hip), navicular bone at the wrist, upper end of the humerus (shoulder), and clavicle as well as the tibia are areas of predilection. Historically, the only remedy has been a major operative procedure and even at that, there is a high failure rate with multiple complications including infection. It has been said that the only thing worse than an infected non-union is cancer. Let me share with you the story of two recent patients for whom I successfully intervened with Bone Marrow Concentrate when prior attempts at achieving fracture healing, one through surgery had failed.
VDVR is a 46-year-old woman who ten years ago sustained multiple fractures to her spine and lower extremities while serving in Iraq. She had undergone numerous surgical procedures, all successful except the inability to cause healing of fractures to her left calcaneus and talus. She had been left with Oxycontin addiction and crutch dependency. After several further orthopedic consultations she had a choice of amputation or more major surgical repair attempts with only 50% chance of success. Twelve weeks ago, I performed a Bone Marrow Concentrate/ Stem Cell intervention to her left calcaneus and talus. Last week she called and indicated she no longer required narcotics and could walk without crutches. The X-ray I received a day or two after the call was indicative of fracture healing.
JM is a 76-year old man with an established non-union of the left clavicle, of several years duration. He was experiencing arthritic changes in his left shoulder and asked me to try and achieve healing of the clavicle, even after several years while I was injecting Bone Marrow Concentrate into his arthritic left shoulder. About 16 weeks ago, I completed a stem cell intervention to his left shoulder and into the area of non-union of the outer one-third of the left clavicle. When I saw him in follow-up last week, the collarbone was completely healed. He had been afraid to undergo a surgical repair because of the high incidence of infection, failure and neurovascular injury associated with surgery of non-union at the clavicle.
These are but two illustrations of what is happening in the new world of Cellular Orthopedics. The initiative is gaining traction in the orthopedic world as I more and more success stories are realized
Tags: arthritis, athletes, Benefits and Risk, Bone Marrow Concentrate, Fracture, Interventional Orthopedics, Non-Union Fracture, Orthopedic Care, Orthopedics, Osteoarthritis, Pain Management, Regenexx, shoulder, stem cells, treatment