The most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis (OA), impacts more than twenty million Individuals. 1 of the primary targets for this illness is the knee.
Osteoarthritis is a put on and tear disease involving hyaline articular cartilage. It occurs as a consequence of the lack of capacity of cartilage to maintain up with abnormal breakdown.
The standard therapy strategy for osteoarthritis has not transformed in a lot more than fifty a long time. Essentially, physicians have been qualified to treat the symptoms of pain and try out to restore perform and hold out for the inexorable journey to joint substitute.
Distinct modalities such as actual physical treatment, analgesics (ache relievers), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication (NSAIDS), workout routines, braces, topical agents, and injections of either corticosteroids (“cortisone”), or viscosupplements (lubricants) are all tried and then the medical professional throws up his or her hands and claims to the patient “you require a knee substitute.”
So primarily there is a huge void among administration of signs and eventual surgery.
Recently, pleasure has swirled about the function of regenerative medicine techniques in solving the osteoarthritis conundrum. These consist of the use of platelet-rich plasma and stem cells.
Sadly, this interest has experienced untoward side effects. The initial is the proliferation of practitioners who have jumped on the band wagon without the requisite instruction.
The second is the media hoopla created by this relatively new therapy strategy.
An case in point not too long ago is the headline in an Australian newspaper, “A “Wonder” cutting-edge stem cell procedure could have saved Sharks ahead Anthony Tupou’s career.”
In scenario you are not up on rugby, Anthony Tupou was a previous star in the sport. He underwent a stem cell process involving the use of excess fat-derived stem cells for a knee situation. And this method has seemingly resurrected his job.
Dr. Paul Annett, a athletics medical professional, elevated an interesting counterpoint on his weblog. He quite rightly pointed out that a lot of procedures executed in the realm of sports medication are carried out simply because they “might be helpful” and are relatively innocuous.
He then posits that “there are a lot of possible factors this treatment may of advantage to some clients, including the ‘placebo effect’, the standard fluctuation of arthritic condition or some mechanical influence of the injection by itself. Anthony’s knee may just really feel far better as he experienced an off-season with no managing!
And Swiss Medica Review goes on to say, “The moral way of obtaining around this is for the proponents of this technique to perform some randomised double-blind medical trials (the ‘gold standard’ of reports) to rigorously confirm the relative positive aspects…”
And I couldn’t agree far more. Whilst there is considerable anecdotal proof that these procedures have reward, there are no demanding double-blind controlled trials. The reasons are probably two fold.
First, it’s tough to get a biotech or pharmaceutical organization to fund a review involving the use of a patient’s possess body tissue. Where’s the revenue?
The next is that the procedure of acquiring grants from institutions this sort of as the Countrywide Institutes of Wellness (NIH) or the Arthritis Foundation in the U.S. is unbelievably arduous.