Everything You Need To Know About Stem Cell Therapy For Knee Pain
Studies show that an average of 25% of adults in the US suffer from frequent knee pain. If you have struggled with aching knees, you should consider stem cell treatment for knee pain.
Treating knee pain with stem cell therapy involves injecting stem cells into the aching knee to help speed up the healing. The treatment is fairly new, and hence many people have not heard of stem cell treatment for knee pain and haven't tried knee pain stem cell therapy on their aching knees.
If you are one of these people, here is what you need to know about knee pain stem cell therapy.
What Are Stem Cells, and How Do They Work?
Most cells in the human body have a single characteristic and function embedded in their design. But, stem cells are unique because they can evolve into any cell.
Stem cells can help regenerate or rebuild damaged or lost tissue. Hence, if your knee pain results from damaged tissue, injecting stem cells into the knee helps regenerate new tissue cells. The stem cells fast-forward the healing process and ease your knee pain in a short period.
Where Are the Stem Cells Sourced?
Stem cell therapy for knee pain derives stem cells from the patient's body. For knee pain treatments, physicians use Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).
The Mesenchymal stem cells come from a patient's bone marrow or fatty tissue. Your doctor will explain where they intend to remove stem cell samples from your body. After removing the samples, the doctor injects them into your knee to begin the knee pain treatment.
Is the Treatment FDA Approved?
The FDA has only approved a hand full of stem cell treatments for several types of blood disorders and cancers.
However, the FDA has no issues with doctors using stem cell injections to treat knee pain because it falls under orthopedic treatments. The FDA approves stem cell therapy provided the stem cells are not donated but rather derived from the patient's body.
Which Knee Conditions Does Stem Cell Therapy Treat?
Several conditions can cause knee pains. But, since using stem cell therapy is relatively new, the treatment doesn't apply to all knee pain conditions. You should consult a doctor on whether stem cell treatments apply to your knee condition.
The treatment is applicable for conditions such as:
- Torn meniscus
- Knee osteoarthritis
- Knee cartilage degeneration
- Torn ACL
- Torn MCL
Doctors are still experimenting with other ways to treat various knee conditions using stem cell therapy. However, as of now, stem cell treatments work for the above-listed conditions.