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Sports Science: Innovative Treatments for Sports Injuries

There are many uses of stem cells and for sports injuries today. Primarily treatments have been focused on chronic tendon injury or ligament injury, but they can also be used also for muscle injuries.

At CELLING TREAMENT CENTERS, we provide individualized stem cell therapies that meet the individual need of athletes and patients in an outpatient setting.

The most common applications include:

• Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) - Read More
• Achilles tendonitis (inflammation and swelling of the Achilles tendon)
• Patellar tendonitis (inflammation of the patellar tendon, also called "Jumper's Knee")
• Rotator Cuff Impingement (tendinopathy; bursitis; tendinitis)
• Whiplash

The mechanism of action of Stem Cells and PRP are not the same:

In general, stem cells modulate inflammation and repair damaged tissue by cell differentiation. This can result in a decrease in pain and swelling and an increase in healing potential.

PRP enhances healing by the formation of fibroblastic scar tissue. In a chronically inflamed tendon or ligament, this may provide the needed healing and support required to return to play.

Platelet-Rich Plasma: Does It Work?

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons news release on platelet rich plasma, 10/01/2009. 

At CELLING TREATMENT CENTERS we recommend patients and athletes try conventional treatments, such as anti-inflammatory medications, physical therapy, massage, activity modification, bracing and even cortisone injections before platelet-rich plasma or stem cell therapies as most will respond adequately to these treatments.

IN THE NEWS

PRP beats Cortisone for Tennis Elbow in Level One Study

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Under the direction of Dr. Taco Gosens from the Netherlands, a prospective, randomized, controlled trial of 100 patients was done to evaluate the efficacy of platelet rich plasma against cortisone for chronic tennis elbow.  They recently reported their results in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.  (Feb. 2010)

73% of the PRP treated patients were successful compared to 51% in the corticosteroid group (p < 0.001) at one year of follow up according to visual analog pain and functional scores.  This represents a 43% better success rate for PRP. This data should put to end the option of using cortisone for chronic tennis elbow.  There is only limited support for its use in short term pain relief.  It is also clear from these last two papers that the evaluation of PRP must be done by specific clinical problem and the severity of the problem.  Only by doing careful studies will we be better able to predict which patients will respond to PRP as a therapy. 

Finally, PRP in my opinion should be reserved for patients that have failed non-operative treatment and are considering surgery.  Most patients with tendinopathy will respond without invasive intervention.  A study directly comparing PRP to surgical outcomes for tendinopathy should be considered.

Celling Treatment Centers specializes in treating athletes with painful joints, tendon injuries, ligament injuries and swollen joints. Located in Austin, Texas.