Knee Pain
Non-Surgical Knee Pain Options
Knee Pain
In our over 25 years of helping people with knee pain, we have been able to help patients with a diagnosis of:
Knee tendonitis
Knee bursitis
Patellar tendinopathy
Post surgery knee pain
ACL tears and post-surgical pain
MCL and PCL
For people who had arthroscopic and knee replacement surgery and continue to have knee pain. We may also be able to help.
Conservative care options:
For some people, conservative care non-surgical options can be very successful for their knee pain. For others, these treatment’s effectiveness may have worn off if they were effective at all.
We see many people who have had one, many or all of these treatments below:
Painkiller prescriptions
Knee braces
These treatments will continue to be prescribed until eventually an MRI will reveal enough damage to recommend a knee surgery.
Knee Pain Care Options
Bone marrow aspirate concentrate
Bone marrow concentrate or bone marrow aspirate concentrate is the injection into the damaged, injured area of the knee. The injection contains stem cells that have been drawn from the patient’s own bone marrow. These cells are “de-differentiated pluripotent” cells, which mean that they continue to divide to create more cells that can “morph” into the tissue needing repair—for our purposes, collagen needed for cartilage, ligaments, tendons and bone.
We have published research on the treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis with Bone Marrow Concentrate Injections. The research appears in the peer-reviewed Clinical Medicine Insights: Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Disorders. The study can be found here in its entirety:
Short-Term Outcomes in Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis With 4 Bone Marrow Concentrate Injections.
Preliminary research suggests that bone marrow concentrate (BMC), which contains mesenchymal stem cells and platelets, is a promising treatment for knee osteoarthritis. The aim of this study was to build on this preliminary research by reporting the short-term progress of 15 patients (20 knees) with knee osteoarthritis through 4 BMC treatments.
Methods:
Patients underwent four sequential BMC treatments with mean injection times of 13.80 days after the first treatment, 21.40 days after the second treatment, and 33.50 days after the third treatment. The last follow-up was conducted a mean 86 days after the first treatment. Baseline and posttreatment outcomes of resting pain, active pain, lower functionality scale, and overall improvement percentage were compared after each treatment.
Results:
Patients experienced statistically significant improvements in active pain and functionality score after the first treatment. Additionally, patients experienced a mean decrease in resting pain after the first treatment, yet outcomes were not statistically significant until after the second treatment. On average, patients experienced an 84.31% decrease in resting pain, a 61.95% decrease in active pain, and a 55.68% increase in functionality score at the final follow-up. Patients also reported a mean 67% total overall improvement at study conclusion. Outcomes at the final follow-up after the fourth treatment were statistically significant compared to outcomes at baseline, after first treatment, after second treatment, and after third treatment.
Conclusions:
These results are promising, and additional research with a larger sample size and longer follow-up is needed to further examine the treatment effectiveness of multiple BMC injections for knee osteoarthritis.
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy
PRP treatments are injection treatments. The treatments are derived from your own healing and growth factors found in your blood. The treatment involves collecting a small amount of your blood and concentrating it in a centrifuge to separate the blood platelets from the red blood cells. The collected platelets are then injected back into the injured area of the knee to stimulate healing and regeneration to the soft tissue structures that stabilize the spine.
Alleviating knee pain and restoring function
Some research on Bone marrow concentrate and Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy have demonstrated significant improvements in patient’s Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Scores, including pain and symptom relief. These methods however do not work for everyone. Please contact Dr. Darrow so we can begin our assessment of your candidacy for care.
Call for a free phone consultation with our staff:
Call 800-300-9300 or 310-231-7000
With over 25 years experience in regenerative medicine techniques and the treatment of thousands of patients, Dr. Darrow is considered a leading pioneer in the non-surgical treatment of degenerative Musculoskeletal Disorders and sports related injuries. He is one of the busiest Regenerative Medicine doctors in the world. Dr. Darrow has co-authored and continues to co-author leading edge medical research including research on bone marrow derived stem cells. He also comments and writes on research surrounding the treatment of chronic tendon injury, ankle and foot pain, elbow, hand and finger pain.