Knee Injuries Treatment

If you’re one of the millions of people suffering from knee pain due to arthritis, patellofemoral syndrome, chondomalacia, pes anersine bursitis, Baker’s cyst, patellar tendonitis, meniscus tear or ligament damage, total knee replacement surgery doesn’t have to be your only treatment option. The rapidly evolving field of regenerative medicine uses stem cells to heal your body’s tissues and bones. The process has seen positive results in joint disorders and injury.

Your knee joint is a complex and powerful joint — the largest in your body. A knee injury can cause you a lifetime of pain and suffering if not corrected. Millions of Americans visit emergency rooms with physical knee injuries every year. And even more complain of chronic or persistent knee pain as they age or recover from knee injuries.

The reason so many knees have issues is that they’re major weight-bearing joints. Your knees not only allow you to move, walk, stand, jump and run, they also provide stability. Pain or joint disease to one or both knees could debilitate you, forcing you rely on crutches or even a wheelchair. But stem cell therapy for your knees can help repair your damaged joint while allowing you to avoid surgery.

Treatment Starts with a Diagnosis

Even if you feel your knee pain is mild, seek medical attention to get a diagnosis. If your knee heals properly, you prevent future problems. Like ankle injuries, if your knee injury heals poorly, you may face a lifetime of pain. Your diagnosis may be:

• ACL sprain or tear
• PCL sprain or tear
• MCL sprain or tear
• LCL sprain or tear
• Meniscus tear
• Arthritis —either rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis
• Tendinopathy or tendonitis, such as hamstring tendinopathy or biceps femoris insertional tendinopathy
• Patellofemoral syndrome
• Chondromalacia
• Pes anserine bursitis
• Baker’s cyst, which happens when a fluid-filled bubble forms in your knee joint

Best-in-Class Solution to Knee Injuries

The traditional treatment has been arthroscopic knee surgery or total knee replacement, which involves pain management, physiotherapy, supportive sports like swimming and dietary changes. Knee surgery carries risks and is expensive. Additionally, it produces average success rates, long-term complications like osteoarthritis and long recovery times.

Regenerative therapy has been proven as a safe, effective way to address knee pain and damage. Stem cell therapy allows your body to heal naturally by injecting your own stem cells — taken from your bone marrow — into your knee, where they transform into the kind of cells you need: bone, ligament, cartilage or soft tissue. The technology has progressed and become increasingly popular and mainstream, so that now you can consider stem cell therapy instead of total knee replacement.

Stem Cells and Knee Injury

Stem cells are injected into your knee at the source of your pain. There, they differentiate into the required cells to repair the damage. Stem cells encourage new cell growth and fight inflammation. Much of the research done by the Mayo Clinic and the Center for Regenerative Medicine has shown that stem cell therapy has a positive effect on degenerative joint diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

The Mayo Clinic concluded that stem cell therapy is a safe option for improving not only your injured knee, but the opposite one as well. Instead of inserting metal joints, stem cell therapy lets you keep your own bones and tissue, healing your body naturally.

The Anatomy of Your Knees

Although you may have heard a lot about an anterior cruciate ligament or ACL sprain or tear, your knees have three other ligaments:

1. Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL)
2. Medial collateral ligament (MCL)
3. Lateral cruciate ligament (LCL)

These four ligaments help stabilize each knee joint along with your medial and lateral menisci. The menisci are rubbery fibrocartilage in between the joints; if you tear one, it’s called a meniscus tear. Any number of twisting motions or strains can injure this infrastructure.

Types of Knee Injuries

Since your knees have so many moving parts, injury or disease that affects any one of them causes a loss of functionality. Whether it occurs in the form of trauma, disease, or age-related degeneration, knee injuries and ailments are painful. The most common problems associated with the knee pain involve ligaments or cartilage.

In addition to injuries like a meniscus tear, a PCL sprain or tear, and hamstring tendinopathy, a vast number of people suffer from joint disease or the pain from normal wear and tear that comes with age. These conditions include organic diseases like arthritis, patellofemoral syndrome, bursitis and Baker’s cyst.

Who Suffers Knee Problems?

Younger people, especially athletes, more often suffer blunt trauma injuries. Active people hurt their knees due to overuse or inadequate protection. These injuries include patellar tendonitis, patellofemoral syndrome, hamstrings tendinopathy and biceps femoris insertional tendinopathy. Blunt force trauma can lead to knee instability, which causes other problems if not treated.

Older people suffer most from joint disease. Whether caused by normal wear and tear or a particular disease, joint ailments happen when the joint loses its cushiony parts, the jell-like material that makes it possible for it to move fluidly without friction and leads to pain and loss of motion.

Painful Symptoms

The hallmark symptom of most knee injuries is pain, which can be mild to severe. Other symptoms that accompany the pain include:

• Bruising
• Swelling
• Stiffness
• Loss of flexibility
• Instability of the joint

You may even feel your knee buckling underneath your weight. If you aggravate the symptoms when you walk, run, climb stairs or stand for extended periods of time, it’s time to visit your NYC doctor or a top New York stem cell therapy specialist for an examination that may include X-rays or an MRI.