- What type of cells are used?
- What is the pre- and post-treatment plans?
- How much experience do you have and what are your compiled results?
Stem cell clinics and stem cell experts are filling the internet and the airwaves at a surprisingly rapid rate of growth. Once, these treatments were only available at tertiary medical centers or obscure medical clinics in Europe. Today, almost any medium sized city in the United States has a clinic offering some sort of cell therapy for anything from hair loss to multiple sclerosis. The lack of government control in this burgeoning field of medicine ,and the allure of a "cure" for cash paying patients has made this area of medicine fertile ground for shysters and charlatans ready to take money from desperate patients. A recent study published in the Journal of Knee Surgery in July of 2018 conducted by Dr. Puizzi at the Cleveland Clinic evaluated over 317 clinics in the US advertising stem cell therapy for arthritis of the knee. There were able to contact over 273 of these clinics over the phone and pose as a 57 yo man with knee arthritis. When they asked about the clinics success rates and costs, the answers tended to vary showing that there is little consensus in this field on the costs and results. Furthermore, the cost of the procedure had no correlation to the outcomes reported. So, you did not get what you paid for.