The most frequent knee injuries are mainly caused in the adolescent stage of life, these injuries tend to be on the ligaments of the knee usually occasionally by trauma such as falling, hitting on any surface, etc. Many times, these traumas can be repetitive which lead to intra-articular instability and overload of the regular function and structure of the knee. That’s why young adults very frequently present injuries or ruptures of the meniscus, these types of injuries cause the cartilage in the joint to overwork more than usual making the cartilage to wear down As the cartilage degenerates, it also affects the bone surfaces resulting in the formation of osteophytes (bony projections). If you don’t address this, it helps to speed the degenerative process of the injury, which also causes a progressive wear down of the articular cartilage and makes a harmful microenvironment for the joint and surrounding cartilage structure like the meniscus and internal ligaments, all of this increases the speed in the progression of the injury. There are additional factors that we also have to keep in mind that could contribute to these types of injuries, such as: hereditary factors, susceptibility to wear of the cartilage, metabolic factors that may alter the cartilage structure without leaving behind the excessive overload related to overweight and obesity, also the improper habits of the patients like bad postures (crossing your legs in awkward positions).

What are the most common Knee Injuries?

If you have any of the following symptoms, a stem cell procedure for knees may be the right choice for you:

• Knee pain
• Stiffness related to movement
• Morning pain until joints ‘warm up’
• Swollen knee after exercise
• Swollen knee or increased tendency of swelling of joints
• Decreased motion/flexibility of joints

Prevent and repair knee wear

Knee injuries are unfortunately very common. However, taking certain precautions helps to avoid knee wear and tear, so you don’t have to interrupt your daily activities. On the following text we will give you some prevention tips:

Maintain a healthy weight: Being overweight increases your chance of getting osteoarthritis, as the weight puts pressure on the joints in the knee. Remember that maintaining a proper weight not only helps prevent wear and tear on the knee, but is essential in order to maintain a healthy life.

Warm-up: if you are a person who exercises regularly, remember that before starting a physical activity you should do the proper warm-up as a preparatory measure. This way you can avoid wear and tear, since by stretching the muscles the tension in the tendons decreases.

Exercise: Regular physical activity is key to leading a healthier life. Although it seems obvious, not many people take it into consideration. Exercising regularly by strengthening your knee muscles with weight-bearing exercises will help prevent wear and tear on your knees. However, these exercises must be done correctly, in addition to combining them with low-impact exercises such as walking or swimming.

Avoid changes in your training intensity: remember that exceeding your limits is not always beneficial: overloading weight or increasing your training intensity can cause discomfort in your knees; be clear about your limits. Even performing exercises with the proper posture, but taken to excess, can lead to gradual wear and tear.

Wear suitable shoes: high-heeled shoes generate more stress on the knee, avoid wearing them. Wearing suitable shoes for exercise and for your day to day is necessary, since each activity involves a different effort and stress on the knees.

Use of knee pads: an effective way to avoid injury is to use knee pads, as this way we provide support and protection during the time we lift weights, ride a bike, etc.

It is necessary to keep in mind that cartilage healing is a complex and difficult process to achieve, therefore, you should consult your expectations with your doctor.

What is stem cell therapy?

Essentially, autologous stem cell therapy is the use of a natural resource of repairing cells that already exists in our body.  Recovery of the cartilage structure and function has remained a challenge for a long time, mainly because cartilage is a tissue without nutrition of vessels, once it’s damaged auto regeneration becomes really hard due to the lack of nutrition . Severe cases are treated with total knee replacement surgery, which are extremely expensive and may not always yield long-lasting results. Usually a knee replacement lasts only for 10-15 yrs depending on the habits of the patient. Therefore a very active young person could go through several knee replacements in his life. Research suggests that stem cells for knees can help restore a normal cartilage and bone function. Stem Cell Therapy implies the use of cells with the capacity to regenerate in the body, there are different sources for these cells such as the skin, the liver, fatty tissue but the main source is the bone marrow. Bone Marrow stem cells infused with it’s natural growth factors and stimulants give nutrition to the cartilage to promote its regeneration.

Stem Cell Injections for Knees

When we talk about stem cell injections for knees, we are mainly talking about the intra-articular application of stem cells. To consider this specific application, we need to make a prior evaluation of the patient’s condition and determine whether or not a stem cell shot for knee is a good path for them to follow. This technique has existed for many centuries and it has been updated and standardized as years go by. Stem cells are obtained through the bone marrow of the patient without manipulating them, this way the cells have a higher viability, stability and they keep their regenerative cell capacity. The main benefit from Stem Cell Knee injection is that it repairs and regenerates the cartilage. Complete Bone marrow is sometimes the best bet to complete this kind of stem cell application because of all growth factors that it contains, although may also use umbilical cord or placenta stem cells according to the case and the doctor’s recommendation.

How many stem cells are injected?

To repair and regenerate the wear of the knee, it is not indispensable to apply a large volume of stem cells, in this case it’s more important the quality and the viability of the cells rather than the number of the cells injected. Research in stem cells for knees has shown improvement on patients who have received as few as 5 million stem cells intra-articularly. When applying an excessive volume of cells, our organism responds to such excess and ends up destroying them. For this type of application, we suggest between 20-25 million stem cells per knee but of course it depends on each patient’s particular condition. It’s important to say that with this application patients could expect some inflammation of the knee for 24-48 hrs, with some discomfort related to inflammation. Usually, analgesic is facilitated for the first 24-48 hrs. Extra load to the knee (such as exercise or long walks) is not recommended for a few days.

All are injuries treatable with stem cells?

Unfortunately, the straight answer is no, we would love to say that everything is treatable with stem cells but not all injuries receive an improvement with the therapy. For example, patients with meniscus injuries, very often these patients have loose pieces of meniscus in the knee which cause pain and discomfort, in this case stem cells won’t be able to help because it is not a matter of tissue regeneration.  The right course of access required is to have removed those loose pieces, stem cells won’t put them back to their place nor destroy them, stem cells may offer a very short period of relief for these patients but it’s not the proper treatment for them to follow. The same happens with osteophytes (also known as bone spurs), which is irregular bone growth around the edge of the bone, stem cells won’t eliminate that excess bone either, it requires surgery to remove the osteophyte. Some external factors limiting stem cell therapy that are  not related to the injury would be if you currently have or have had cancer in the past 5 years, if you have any tumor, any current infection and some other specific cases like hereditary conditions.

What is the success rate of stem cell therapy for knees?

Stem Cell injections for knees has an effectiveness of around 98-99% of the cases. For every 100 patients that have received the intra-articular injection at least 98 of them have received benefits from it. Improvement wise from those 98 patients, at least half of them have received a very good response from the therapy meaning pain relief and surgery avoided for years, around 25-35 of them have received a good to regular improvement translated to pain relief, got back to daily sports and activities with little limitation and the rest show a discrete to moderate benefit from the therapy which can be explained as stopped degeneration avoiding more damage, in all the scenarios patients have been able to return to their daily activities in a few days without pain.

 What to expect from Stem Cell Injections?

When there is an injury in cartilage, stem cells help protect the existing cartilage and regenerate more. With this process, cartilage becomes functional again and by doing this inflammation is reduced, therefore pain is relieved, the movement range improves, the joint gets stronger and it reverses the harmful microenvironment for the joint and surrounding cartilage structure. Patients are able to get pain relief, improvement in the cartilage function and less wear, which means that the patient will gradually decrease his medication intake, chronic pain and inflammation will start reducing more and more and so the necessity of taking medication to relieve those symptoms.

Although stem cells can be obtained from different sources, such as: bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, adipose tissue and even teeth, we prefer to use fresh, autologous bone marrow; as it contains many stimulating factors and growth factors. As research studies advance and more beneficial qualities for regenerating and repairing tissue are discovered, we are becoming more and more convinced of its potential for anti-aging, prevention and for treating a wide variety of degenerative conditions. That is why we want to bring the benefits of stem cells to all those patients with a medical condition, even when traditional treatments have had little or no results.

Is it expensive?

There is an idea that stem cell therapy is a very expensive treatment and almost unreachable to patients, but it’s actually not. Stem Cell Therapy in Tijuana, Mexico is actually very affordable compared to the excessive charges found in other countries where a treatment can go anywhere from $20k to $50k or even higher. At ProgenCell we offer Knee Stem Cell Injections for just a fraction of that, our prices can go from $1.75k to $3k.

If you’d like to know more information about our knee stem cell injections or if you’d like to know if you are a candidate for the treatment please contact us at info@progencell.com or +1 (888) 443-6235 We will evaluate your case and review your X-rays/ MRI without any cost and we will provide an honest expectation, and  accurate quotation, start your stem cell journey today!

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