At Cellular Healing, we strive to find the best treatment options for our patient’s specific conditions and situations. Our goal is to ensure every individual receives the best options, because no one benefits when each patient is offered the exact same treatment. If our staff truly believes that you will not benefit from cell based therapy, we will be honest and tell you right away.
Although the following is not a complete list, it is a general guideline to help prospective patients understand whether or not they may be an ideal candidate for our procedures. You and your surgeon will always find exceptions, as not every patient responds the same to each treatment; generally, cell-based treatments help with biochemical problems of the joint and not biomechanical issues.
Here are a variety of the factors we evaluate to find the best treatment for each patient’s specific and special condition:
- Stable joint without frequent giving away or locking. If your joint feels unstable, gives way or locks more than two times per week, you may require an additional procedure such as an arthroscopic procedure to fix a tear or remove loose cartilage. Stem cell therapy can be performed at the same time.
- Lack of severe bowing of the joint. This normally means less than 10 degrees of bowing in either direction. Cell-based therapies do not correct structural deformities, and when the joint becomes so deformed that it impairs the normal function, cell based therapy may not be the best solution.
- Lack of frequent severe joint swelling requiring needle aspirations. If you have water removed from your joint more than four times per year, stem cell therapy may not be recommended. Frequent and severe swelling of the joint may indicate that the cell-based therapy may not be able to reduce this inflammation enough to provide substantial and long lasting relief.
- Lack of severe stiffness of the joint. If your joint has lost more than 20 degrees of normal motion, you may not be a stem cell candidate. Normal healing of a joint requires close to normal range of motion. Joint fluid requires this range of motion to circulate within the joint, and if this circulation is severely impaired, cell based therapy may not be your best option.
- Willing to participate in additional therapies to improve the health of the joint. Cell therapy has a higher rate of success when patients participate in frequent, simple, home-based therapy exercises, help reduce their weight, and adapt healthy diets.
Cell-based therapies correct biochemical imbalances and not biomechanical problems with joints. Therefore, if your joint is bowed or bent more than 10 degrees or has serious ligament and/or meniscus problems, these need to be evaluated and treated first before cell-based therapies can be effective. Symptoms such as giving away of the joint and difficulty in dressing may indicate underlying biomechanical problems of a joint.
Dr. Loniewski earnestly desires to ensure the right treatment is matched to the right patient, in order to ensure an optimal outcome. Therefore, it is very important to have a thorough physical exam conducted by a board certified orthopedic surgeon with the appropriate studies such as a standing x-ray, and in most cases, an MRI, to evaluate the joint for underlying biomechanical problems such as meniscus tears or stress fractures of the bone. Our staff wants to ensure that we only recommend treatments which have the best chance of providing you with the best possible outcome - and the following surveys are a step in the right direction. You can take the simple surveys by clicking through the embedded links shared in the sections below.
