Treating Chronic Pain With PRP and Stem Cells

By Levi Pearson, III, MD, MBA, DABA, DABPM

Metropolitan Pain and Spine

. https://www.metropolitanspine.com/

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Treating Chronic Pain With PRP and Stem Cells

Interventional pain management uses multiple forms of treatment to assist patients with chronic pain. These procedures include a full array of image guided injections such as epidural steroid injections, medial branch facet injections, and sacroiliac joint injections, as well as radiofrequency ablations, disc decompression, spinal cord stimulation, and more.

Surprisingly many patients are unaware of possible benefits from regenerative medicine treatments with the use of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) and adult Stem Cells.

Regenerative medicine is in the news as a treatment option for injured patients and world-class athletes such as Stephen Curry, Dez Bryant, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, Hines Ward, Rafael Nadal, and many more. Regenerative medicine treatments are potentially a tremendous alternative to surgery, chronic medication use, and invasive treatments, which may only serve to mask a problem rather than resolving it.

Huge strides are being made to potentially eradicate many formidable diseases, regenerate tissue, and greatly accelerate the healing process for many patients.

Through the use of your own body tissue such as blood and bone marrow in a concentrated form, high concentrations of growth factors, platelets, and stem cells can be placed accurately with image guided techniques to potentially produce accelerated regeneration, tissue healing, and increased pain relief. Since the patient’s own body tissue and fluids are being used, adult regenerative medicine therapy is associated with an outstanding safety profile and has been trusted by many organizations with high integrity and anti-doping policies such as the NBA, NFL, MLB, and WTA for its athletes to receive platelet rich plasma and stem cell treatments.

Some patients may be concerned about these treatments being fairly new on the medical scene and not FDA approved, but many of the treatments being used in medicine regularly have good safety profiles and may not be FDA approved. There may also be concerns about not being covered by insurance resulting in out-of-pocket costs, but in many situations the cost may be less than the co-payments and deductibles being spent for surgery, chronic medications, and procedures that may not have been effective for the patient to date.