Living with Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, can occur because of injury, infection, from being overweight or for some it can be heredity. Knee Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage in the joints breaks down causing chronic knee pain, stiffness, and abnormal joint functioning.
The knee is the largest joint in the body, the knee moves like a hinge, allowing you to sit, squat, walk or jump. When knee problems arise, they can interfere with almost all your daily activities and certainly compromise your participation in more advanced activities or sports.
Due to the wear of tear that happens along the joints, living with osteoarthritis can make daily life painful. Often patients complain that they feel loss of control of when their knee (or other joints) may act up, cause pain, or limit their ability to do something. Quite safe to say, that this condition does affect day to day life.
Stem Cell Therapy for Knee Osteoarthritis
Traditionally, treatments have been centered around surgical and pharmaceutical interventions. While pharmaceuticals have the potential to allow for a temporary pain relief, the cartilage will continue to deteriorate. Knee replacement surgery is often required when the knee joint has reached a point where the pain can no longer be controlled. Surgery should be used as a last resort as it is highly invasive and non-reversible should you achieve less than optimal results.
A safer, non-surgical treatment is available in our clinics, in Wisconsin, with Dr. Murray.
There is recent research that does suggest, that stem cells can regrow cartilage, furthermore, there is research on the use of stem cells (specifically mesenchymal stem cells, MSCs) in knee osteoarthritis treatment. Results demonstrated that MSCs (connective tissue stem cells) administered into the knee remained on the surface of the damaged meniscus and embedded into the cartilage, resulting in the restoration of meniscal tissue.
As you can see the growing field of regenerative medicine and orthopedics show us promising results in conditions such as osteoarthritis. We understand the difficulty of living with it and are here to help guide you towards a treatment plan that can help you get back to your day to day life.
Do you suffer from knee pain? Contact Dr. Murray and his team in Wisconsin, at Oconomowoc, New Berlin, and/or Mequon. We would love for you to come in for a consultation and assess what is the best treatment plan for you.
Contact us today at info@solsticewi.com