What Is Regenerative Medicine?
Regenerative medicine is defined as the process of replacing or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function. This field of medicine holds the promise of regenerating damaged tissues and organs in the body by replacing damaged tissue or by stimulating the body’s own repair mechanisms to heal tissues or organs-healing from within.
With a variety of circumstances, often with aging and accidental injuries, many of the organ systems of the body begin to degenerate. Most of our activities, exercises, and movements done using our joints. While most injuries caused by general wear and tear, gradual loss of cartilage and weakening vital connective tissues, they lose their normal functions and become subject of severe pain. Unfortunately, there are no non-invasive medical therapy available for several of those kinds of degenerative diseases.
Costly corrective orthopedic surgery or joint replacements has been a common treatment option with complications and lengthy rehabilitation stay. Rather than replace missing tissue in joints with artificial materials, regenerative medicine focuses solely on regenerating tissue, tendons, cartilage, bone, and ligaments. Whether these tissues have been severely damaged or have lost considerable mass, Regenerative Medicine emerges as an alternative to invasive joint surgeries using Plated Rich Plasma/ Stem Cell Therapy. Regenerative Medicine focuses on addressing the root cause of pain instead of managing symptoms.
Annually, there are more than 160,000 patients in the world receiving these helpful treatments. Stem cell transplants save more than 60,000 lives each year. There are many success stories of world famous athletes who have used stem cells, instead of surgery, and were back to work and on the field after a short recovery period. Current estimates indicate that approximately one in three Americans could potentially benefit from regenerative medicine.
Regenerative medicine is cutting-edge techniques that offers clinicians an opportunity to begin providing alternative treatments like stem cell and PRP therapies. Such therapies have numerous applications in orthopedics, aesthetics, wound care, and sports medicine.
At Valencia Medical Center, it is about helping our patients live better lives by using three main modalities of regenerative medicine procedures to promote more natural healing. Each of these treatments regrows tissue in a different manner and may be most suitable for certain conditions. We believe that our patients deserve every option possible for accessing the healing medicine they so desperately want.
Stem cell therapy
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that has ability to develop into many different types of specific cells & tissues. For treating orthopedic injuries, the only one with demonstrated efficacy is “Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC)” which can differentiate into bone, tendons, muscle, cartilage. MSC helps people suffering from a degenerative joint disease like osteoarthritis or joint injuries and pain.
For treating orthopedic injuries & pain such as knee, shoulder, elbow and feet or chronic degenerative & rheumatoid arthritis, we at Valencia Medical Center, use FDA compliant bone marrow based stem cells.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP)
Blood Platelets contain proteins known as growth factors that help the body to accelerate healing of wounds and injuries. Some of the orthopedics injuries and pain stand-alone treatment of PRP enriched with high concentration of platelets and growth factors has helped many patients and accelerated the healing process, saving individuals from going through the route of invasive surgery. Many preferred athletes like Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal and baseball players credited PRP in healing their injuries and having a faster recovery.
Conditions treated by Stem Cells & PRP:
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Pain & Inflammation
- Osteoarthritis of knee
- Shoulders chronic lower back pain
- Injuries to ligaments and muscles, meniscus, ACL and PCL tear of the knee chronic tendon issues
- Tennis elbow
- Rotator cuff tears
- Plantar fasciitis
- Golfer’s elbow
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Foot & Ankle sprains
- Stem Cell Therapy & PRP treatment
Our Approach
- Comprehensive MSK evaluation
- Developing treatment plan by an experienced & expert physicians
- FDA compliant bone marrow based stem cell
- Lab processing high concentration for autologous bone marrow concentrate injection
- Ultrasound Image guidance injection
- Patient progress tracking
Step 1: Evaluations & Findings
- Our Physician meet with patient and review their medical history and their injury as well as MRI report & findings.
- A comprehensive MSK evaluation which is vital important part of developing our treatment plan.
Step 2: Initial PRP Injection
- For severe orthopedic injuries, our protocol calls for using PRP initially prior to injecting stem cells with 2-4 weeks interval. This initial treatment used as a boost to stem cell injection.
- PRP, concentrated blood plasma, contains growth factors and other cytokines that stimulate and accelerate healing process.
- Some patients show improvement and if improvement continues, they are not required to do further stem cell treatment.
Step 3: Second Injection – Stem Cells, Bone Marrow
- For those patients required continuation of treatment, they may need to come back at week 4 to receive stem cells/ Bone Marrow Concentrate Therapy (BMC). BMC therapy is a promising non-surgical regenerative treatment used to treat various orthopedic injuries, including moderate to severe osteoarthritis and tendon injures. BMC is a concentrate of regenerative stem cells obtained from a patient’s own bone marrow.
Step 4: Follow Up
- Patients after recovering stem cell injection are required to rest for couple of days and return in 3 months. Our staff will monitor patients progress and documents this findings by asking conditions from our tracking form.
- Our physicians will review their information obtained from patients and are in contact with them and may recommend a booster shot to support the healing process. Tracking patients will continue and findings will be saved in a data base.
Treatment Protocol
PRP Treatment
The following treatment protocol apply for the following orthopedics injury & conditions:
- KNEE Injuries & Pain
- SHOULDER Injuries & Pain
- ELBOW Injuries
- FOOT & ANKLE Injuries & Pain
- OSTEOARTHRITIS (All Joints)
- RHUEMATOID ARTHRITIS
Many orthopedics injury and pain may be treated by PRP injection. Some sports injuries have been treated by PRP and have been very responding, generally a few weeks after injection, improvement begins and continues.
Booster Shot
Patient returns within 3 months for follow up evaluation and if necessary request a booster shot to support the healing process. In some cases it may require 2 PRP injections, 3 months apart.Stem Cell Treatment
For patients with severe injuries or specific orthopedic conditions stem cell therapy will be recommended. Initial treatment starts with PRP injection, a concentrated blood plasma contains growth factor and other cytokines that initiates and stimulate a healing environment. Then patient will return in 4 weeks for the bone marrow stem cell injection.
Bone Marrow Stem Cell Injection
Bone Marrow Concentrate (BMC) Therapy, also known as Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate (BMAC) Therapy, is a promising cutting-edge regenerative therapy to help accelerate healing in moderate to severe osteoarthritis and tendon injuries. Our Physician uses FDA compliant bone marrow based stem cell to treat orthopedic injuries. There are different types of stem cells but we use Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) that has demonstrated efficacy in treating orthopedic injuries with the ability to develop into connective tissue and self-renewal. They have helped to restore the lost cartilage and prevent further damage to the joint as well as turn into bone, cartilage, muscle, tendons or ligaments.
Bone Marrow Stem Cell Special Process
The process of obtaining stem cells from bone marrow and prepares stem cells for injection is a delicate process requiring physicians with special training and specialty. Our process is a performed by special medical team to make sure successful outcome and assures the patients comfort during process.
- Bone marrow aspiration is done by one of expert physician in our medical team who has performed hundreds bone marrow processing.
- The patient’s bone marrow, then is placed into a centrifuge to separate the regenerative cells and platelets from the rest of the blood products. The bone marrow lab processing also performs by experienced technician with physician supervision.
- Using ultrasound image guidance injection, stem cells is performed by our expert physician and assisted by a trained MSK ultrasound technician.
- Upon drawing bone marrow from patient hip bones, we process it in our lab using advanced high concentration unit that produces up to 20 times more stem cells than bedside centrifuge, most physicians use.
Ultrasound Image Guidance Injection
Most physicians treating orthopedic pain and injuries perform injections blindly without any image guidance. This freestyle technique results in 20%-40% missing the target location. The precise placement of orthobiologics, like stem cells or PRP, using ultrasound image guidance, is a new specialty. Our physicians are trained to perform injections using ultrasound guided needle recognition. We are supported by MSK expert ultrasound technicians as well. This process guarantees the delivery of cells into precise location of your injury.
Difference Between PRP & Stem Cell Therapy?
When we draw blood we use our special high concentrated unit that not only produces 3-5 times more concentration while removing nearly all of the patients white and red blood cells. Our process produces gold color PRP which is almost pure and contains only what your body needs to help repair damage. The end result is better tissue healing specially in tendon injuries and better stimulation of the local stem cells.
PRP Injections use the patient’s own blood. The blood is then processed in a highly advanced, medical-grade centrifuge, to separate platelets. Our process produces gold color platelets, which contain red blood cells with 3 – 5 times more concentration than bedside centrifuges used by most physicians. The platelets are then re-injected into the patients injured area, releasing growth factors that promote natural healing.
Stem Cell Therapy is a completely different process that uses Bone Marrow for extracting stem cells. These special stem cells are called Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC). The MSC’s that demonstrated to be most effective turn into bone, cartilage, muscle, tendons or ligaments. The process involves drawing bone marrow from a patients hip bones. The bone marrow is then processed in a special super concentration unit. This unit can drive up 10-times more stem cells than the bedside centrifuges most physicians use. The stem cells are then re-injected by our expert physicians, using ultrasound image guided by needle recognition capability, ensuring delivery to the precise location. Be advised that PRP is not a stem cell therapy, yet we have seen some clinics advertising PRP injection as a stem cell therapy.
Conditions treated by Stem Cells & PRP:
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Pain & Inflammation
- Osteoarthritis of knee
- Shoulders chronic lower back pain
- Injuries to ligaments and muscles, meniscus, ACL and PCL tear of the knee chronic tendon issues
- Tennis elbow
- Rotator cuff tears
- Plantar fasciitis
- Golfer’s elbow
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Foot & Ankle sprains
Who is not a candidate for Stem Cells & PRP?
Limitations of use for people with the following medical conditions:
- Battled blood-borne cancer in the last five years
- Have specific types of blood-borne disease
- Taking certain medications
- Pregnant
- Anemic
- On Anticoagulant Medications
Regenerative Plasma & Biologic Treatment for Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain
Over 46 million Americans (1 in 5) suffer from arthritis pain according to arthritis foundation. Arthritis associated with pain, loss of movement and swelling.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. The anti-inflammatory agents in stem cells are easing the pain as well as produce regulatory T-cells that protect your body against attack from your own immune system.
New Biologic Treatment for Osteoarthritis Knee
Alpha_2_macroglobulin (A2M) is a biologic for your arthritic knee. A2M injection under ultrasound imaging guidance is a promising treatment, cartilage builder and anti-pain and inflammations and has potential to repair the causes.
Stem Cell Therapy for Foot, Ankle and Athletes Foot Injury
Stem Cell therapy treats the following foot, ankle & athletes foot injuries:
- Ankle sprains & instability
- Foot & ankle trauma & pain
- Ligament sprains/tendonitis
- Heal pain/plantar fasciitis
- Ankle or Foot arthritis
Wound Care
Utilizing advances in regenerative medicine, our wound care treatments are designed for the management and treatment of chronic and acute wounds including diabetic foot ulcers. At Valencia Medical Center, we offer a comprehensive portfolio of regenerative and complementary medicine to help patients from early in their wound healing process through to wound closure.
Regenerative medicine is one of the most recent developments to become worthy treatment alternative to achieve faster wound healing for patients who have failed traditional therapies. When wounds damage tissues, regenerative medicine through regeneration and rejuvenation, can replace the damaged cells or restore them to proper health. This promotes wound healing in various cases, including:
- Diabetic Foot Ulcers
- Post-traumatic open wounds
- Post surgical open wounds
- Wounds involving Bone Infections
Our skilled physicians offer treatment of wounds and diabetic ulcers,for non-healing wounds through:
- Wound Debridement and Cleaning to help healthy tissue grow, minimize scarring and reduce complications of infections
- IV Therapy/ infusion service (ie, provision of IV antibiotics, IV hydrations, IV immunoglobulin (IVIG)
- Amniotic Membrane Allografts (AMAs) Patches
- Platelet-Rich Fibrin (PRF) for the regeneration of soft tissues.
- Scar Resurfacing
Natural And Youthful Results
At Valencia Medical Center we offer a full range of rejuvenating procedures for both men and women, including non-surgical, non-invasive, regenerating therapy, and non-surgical aesthetic treatments. Our team of highly skilled professionals are devoted to helping you look and feel your very best.
Regenerative medicine is the non-surgical procedure that utilizes the bodies natural healing process by regenerating human cells to restore or establish normal function.
Valencia Medical Center provides natural and complementary modalities as well as programs aiming at early detection of signs of aging.
At Valencia Medical Center we are dedicated to helping our patients optimize their health through treatments designated specifically for the improvement of cellular and metabolic age-related dysfunction.
Restore Your Youthful Look and Reclaim Your Confidence
Valencia Medical Center offers unique programs to restore your look from your face throughout your entire body. Our team of skilled healthcare professionals will work with you to create a customized Ageless Life Program that will restore your youthful look and energy.