Revolutionary Stem Cell Therapy for Knees, Also Known as Living 'bandage'
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Oct. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Dr. Leon Reyfman sees many patients each year with meniscal tears, an extremely common knee injury amongst people who enjoy contact sports.
One of the problems with meniscal tears is that they tend to occur in what is called the white zone, an area which doesn't have a good blood supply, making such injuries very difficult to treat. Some professional athletes will even choose to have a torn meniscus completely removed as otherwise there is the risk of osteoarthritis later in life from this type of injury.
Now, a new form of living 'bandage' using stem cell therapy is being trialed in humans, using technology developed by scientists in the Universities of Bristol and Liverpool in the UK. An initial form of the bandage has already been tested in five people and the results were promising.
This stem cell therapy for knees procedure used undifferentiated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) taken from the patient's bone marrow and which were grown for fourteen days before being placed or 'seeded' onto a scaffold made from membrane. This scaffold was then surgically placed into the tear and once in place the cartilage was sewn around it. All five people were found to have an intact meniscus after 12 months, while three people still had an intact meniscus, two years after implantation and were using their knee normally. The remining two patients had their meniscus surgically removed which was due to their symptoms returning or to the development of a new tear.
Researchers are currently looking at ways of using stem cells from donors with the aim of making this surgical treatment more affordable. It is hoped the procedure could help younger patients and athletes.
"There is growing interest in the use of MSCs in treating joint and back pain, so it is always fascinating to read about this type of research" said Dr. Reyfman. "We already know how effective stem cell therapy can be when treating knee injuries sustained during sports, using the patient's own stem cells. These are injected directly into the knee where they can encourage new cell growth and will fight the inflammation causing the pain. Stem cell injections are relatively non-invasive whereas this research involves a surgical procedure, but it could prove useful for younger patients and for people with serious meniscal tears."
About Dr. Leon Reyfman
Dr. Leon Reyfman is a board-certified Interventional Pain Management Physician specializing in treating athletic injuries. He strongly believes in using the least invasive therapies to relive pain and specializes in stem cell therapy which is widely becoming recognized in the medical community as being the first line of defense against chronic pain. Voted by his peers as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor and selected to the prestigious group of New York Magazine Best Doctors, Dr. Reyfman currently serves as the Director of Interventional Pain Medicine and is Assistant Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at SUNY Downstate Medical School.
Dr. Reyfman is also actively involved in pain management research and is committed to providing his patients with the most technologically advanced stem cell therapy for back, shoulder, hip and knee pain.
Contact
Dr. Leon Reyfman, MD, RPhStem Cell Therapy Clinic2279 Coney Island Ave, #100Brooklyn, NY 11223(718) 488-0188
https://www.stemcellstherapynyc.com
Reference
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-12-stem-cell-bandage-knee-injuries.html
Media Contact: Leon Reyfman, Stem Cell Therapy, (718) 488-0188, [email protected]
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