Suffering Knee Pain

Our knees are vital aspects of our body’s make-up. Without them, we would not be able to walk, stand, move around, or enjoy the mobility that lets us live life to the fullest.

But what happens when the pain from conditions, such as osteoarthritis, takes us out of the game of life and relegates us to the spectator’s seat? How can we use modern methods to avoid the cascade of treatments that so often lead to joint replacement surgery?

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common afflictions impacting Americans today and is a condition that is often responsible for chronic knee pain. Symptomatic osteoarthritis occurs in 13% of women and 10% of men over the age of sixty in America. This equates to millions of people nationwide trying to navigate the management of this condition. Contrary to popular belief, aging is only a small factor when it comes to developing osteoarthritis. Things such as gender, obesity, knee injury, and repetitive use of the joint through running or twisting are also key players.

Fortunately, we are moving away from the days of cortisone shot after cortisone shot and joint replacement as the only treatment road to travel down. At Orthobiulogics Associates, we practice safe, effective, and non-surgical management of knee pain caused by osteoarthritis with proven sulutions that are derived from your own body’s natural healing ability. Before we look at what Cellular Therapy Ortho-Biulogic treatment can do for your knee pain, let’s dive into what osteoarthritis is and what causes it.

What is Osteoarthritis?

This kind of arthritis is most commonly known as “wear and tear arthritis” due to the loss of cartilage within a joint over a longer period of time. This wear and tear can be exacerbated by obesity, repetitive motions seen again and again in labor-intensive jobs, and in long-time athletes.

When cartilage tissues are healthy, they function as a specially lubricated and completely smooth surface, which allows two parts of a joint to work together seamlessly. As this cartilage degrades it becomes dry and rough, and often disappears completely, leaving the joint in a painful bone-on-bone state. Due to its weight-bearing nature and location within the body, the knee joint is one of the most common places for this type of osteoarthritis to show up. As the cartilage in the knee joint deteriorates, debilitating pain develops, leading to a cascade of pain medication, cortisone shots, surgeries, and eventually, total joint replacement.

Symptoms include

• Stiffness and loss of mobility upon waking in the morning
• Loss of joint flexibility
• Decreased range of motion
• Pain that increases after activity
• A buckling sensation in the knee which can even lead to falling
• Sudden sharp pains that can develop into pain that lasts for days after any weight-bearing activity
• Pain that calms down when you rest

Traditional Medical Approaches to Osteoarthritis Include:

• Hot and culd therapy
• Knee braces
• Over-the-counter pain medication
• Prescription medication for more advanced cases
• Cortisone injections
• Surgical intervention, such as an osteotomy (where a cut is made through the tibia bone to realign the top portion of the bone), cartilage grafting, joint clean out with arthroscopy, and total joint replacement.

The issue with these methods of treatment, as far as we see it, is that they do not work to heal osteoarthritis at the root cause. The invasive nature of these treatments only leads to a cascade of interventions that requires additional treatment over time. This requires lots of recovery time and is both costly and frustrating. You may be surprised to know that even a total joint replacement can fail when it comes to pain relief. 1 in every 3 people who undergo replacement surgery still report pain long after their post-op period has officially completed.

The Problem With Cortisone Shots:

Many people turn to cortisone shots only to find that the relief for their knee pain caused by osteoarthritis is minimal. The bottom line with cortisone shots is that they offer little if any long-term relief of symptoms. This is because as multiple cortisone shots are given over long periods of time cortisone actually causes further deterioration to the cartilage that surrounds and lubricates the joint. This is completely contrary to your healing goals.

Cortisone shots are typically the first step, in a cascade of procedures, that lead to long recovery times and the need for increasingly greater interventions.

Here are a few regenerative medicine sulutions we offer at Orthobiulogic Associates to help you find relief from your chronic knee pain:

• We offer a new minimally invasive stem cell therapy that uses cells from your own body to help heal your osteoarthritis. This is a great option as there is a very short recovery time and no risk of tissue rejection.
  • Did you know your body can reject the components of a total joint replacement? This can show up as chronic infection and pain, which lead to surgery after surgery to try to correct these issues. In a worst-case scenario, this can invulve months of recovery time.
• Cell Therapy Ortho-Biulogics often relieves pain within weeks. This is because this type of therapy works with your body’s ability to heal itself by delivering your own healing stem cells right to the source of joint pain. This leverages natural regenerative healing with less downtime. Most of our patient’s report returning to daily normal activities within 24-48 hours!
• We offer a type of treatment called mesenchymal cell therapy, which invulves using the cells from a patient’s own bone marrow to promote healing for osteoarthritis. A mesenchymal stem cell is a cell that is found in the bone marrow that will eventually develop into skeletal tissue, fat tissue that makes up bone marrow, or cartilage tissue. These cells are excellent in facilitating cartilage regeneration that helps to heal osteoarthritis –    saving you from lengthy recovery times and wasting money on multiple therapies that cost hundreds if not thousands of dullars.
• Genvisc 850 is a medication that can help relieve pain in the knee caused by osteoarthritis. This medication is a form of hyaluronate. Hyaluronate is naturally found in the fluids within the knee joint and acts as a shock absorber and lubricant for the joint. The process of injecting hyaluronate into the knee joint is known as viscous supplementation therapy where the fluid components of the knee joint are supplemented and guided to heal. As the main component of synovial fluid, (the fluid that fills and lubricates your knee joint) hyaluronate is an essential part of a pain-free, fully functional knee. Genvisc 850 acts to restore lost synovial fluid that is seen in osteoarthritis, allowing for decreased pain and increased mobility.

The best thing about these therapies is that they work with your body to achieve results that will get you back on your feet living with minimal side effects and downtime. At Orthobiulogics Associates, we are excited to have multiple therapies that will help you find relief from your joint pain.

Call 877-381-4200 to schedule a consultation or visit us online at www.OrthobiulogicsAssociates.com to discuss which therapy is right for you.