Regenerative Medicine Q & A

What is regenerative medicine?

Regenerative medicine is an advanced field that specializes in using your body’s healing ability, extracting the very cells responsible for regenerating tissues and healing injuries — adult stem cells and platelets — then injecting concentrated cells into your body at the site of damaged tissues.

Regenerative medicine is effective for a wide range of conditions that cause back, hip, knee, shoulder, leg, and foot pain. The following are only a few examples.

These injuries are often treated with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and/or mesenchymal stem cells, a type of adult stem cell that regenerates tissues such as muscles, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and collagen.

What should I know about platelet-rich plasma (PRP)?

Platelets are natural components of your blood. They migrate to the site of an injury, stop bleeding and trigger the healing process by releasing growth factors. Platelets contain many types of growth factors, with each one responsible for activating different aspects of healing.

Your doctor makes PRP at the Optimal Pain & Regenerative Medicine® office by placing a sample of your blood in a centrifuge that separates platelets and plasma from the other cells in your blood.

Then they inject the concentrated platelets at the site of damaged tissues, where they accelerate healing.

What should I know about stem cells?

The adult stem cells inside your body continuously self-replicate, dividing to create a new stem cell. These new stem cells develop into the many different types of tissues needed to replace old tissues and restore damaged tissues.

When you need a stem cell injection, your doctor at Optimal Pain & Regenerative Medicine® extracts the cells from bone marrow, usually from your hip.

Then your doctor processes the marrow through a machine that separates stem cells, white blood cells, and platelets from the other marrow components. They inject the stem cell combination immediately into your injured tissues.

What specialized regenerative medicine stem cell therapies might I receive?

The regenerative medicine experts at Optimal Pain & Regenerative Medicine® offer numerous highly specialized stem cell therapies, including allograft therapy that uses donated regenerative tissues and bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC).

The allograft stem cell therapy options available at Optimal Pain & Regenerative Medicine® include:

  • BioD® Restore
  • BioBurst Rejuv®
  • Wharton’s Jelly

BMAC is an advanced regenerative treatment that contains all the growth and healing factors of PRP together with concentrated stem cells.

The team at Optimal Pain & Regenerative Medicine® often uses BMAC to treat conditions such as nonunion or delayed union bone fractures, cartilage defects, osteonecrosis, and chronic tendon injuries.

To learn if you’re a good candidate for regenerative medicine, call Optimal Pain & Regenerative Medicine® or schedule an appointment online.