Dr. Cabot is a prestigious specialist in Traumatology. He is an expert in orthopedic surgery and traumatology (orthopedic surgery and traumatology), with proven academic training and hospital experience of more than 25 years of experience, in permanent contact with the latest technological advances.
What alternatives are there to knee surgery?
The truth is that whenever the pathology, pain and functionality of the patient allow it, we must resort to non-surgical, non-invasive treatments, and among these, regenerative treatments are highly recommended, especially when conventional conservative treatments have failed. The purpose of regenerative treatments is to improve or change tissues and cells and thus improve the pathologies and accelerate the healing process.
In which cases can they be used?
Well, whenever there is a degenerative aspect or simply want to accelerate healing. To cite 2 very typical and well-known examples could be degenerative tendinitis, such as the patellar tendon that occurs frequently in athletes, or osteoarthritic processes, osteoarthritis of the knee, hip osteoarthritis, etc … In these 2 cases this type of treatment is particularly indicated.
How are these degenerative treatments?
I am going to refer to the 2 most frequently used. The first is the application of platelet-derived growth factors also known as PRP, which stands for platelet-rich plasma. Through a simple blood extraction as we would do in any analysis, we work with the blood collection until we concentrate part of the plasma obtained. This plasma concentration is then applied in the form of an infiltration, an injection, into the knee, hip or the affected area.
The second treatment involves the application of mesenchymal cells from the patient’s bone marrow. This is performed with a needle and under local anesthesia, the bone marrow is extracted from the anterior part of the pelvis, which is called the anterior superior iliac spine, and once this concentrate is obtained, it is applied by injection, by infiltration, either in the knee, in the tendon, in the elbow, in the place where we want to exert a regenerative effect.
What other indications are there?
A very typical and common one is back pain. For example, in the lumbar spine, by means of ultrasound control, we access the facets, the small joints of the spine, and we apply the growth factors, the cells, the ozone, the product or type of regenerative treatment that we have chosen. This is also useful in cases of disc herniation, disc protrusion, by means of radiological control, to access the disc and eliminate or reduce the disc protrusion or disc herniation.
Are the results good, do you recommend these treatments?
The truth is that they are good in 50-90% of cases according to published studies. There are a series of personal factors in each patient that can make them more or less effective, for example the patient’s activity, age, possible complementary pathologies, whether or not he/she plays sports, etc…
Without any doubt I advise this type of treatment especially when conventional treatments have failed and the surgical indication is not sufficiently clear or is to be delayed even if only because the patient wishes it.