First of all, the doctor will extract bone marrow from the patient’s hip bone at the iliac crest. The area is prepped sterile and numbed considerably to make it tolerable. Since the patient continuously makes new bone marrow, it does not present any lasting problem to harvest some of the bone marrow.

Approximately 30 to 60 cc’s of bone marrow is acquired, and it is processed immediately to concentrate down the stem cells and growth factors. In the past, obtaining regenerative cells from a patient’s bone marrow was very difficult and expensive. Now, thanks to new technologies and medical advancement, it actually takes the doctor very little time and it is a fairly simple outpatient procedure to obtain the bone marrow.

Once the marrow is harvested, it is then placed in a centrifuge and spun until a concentrated substance is obtained consisting of the most important regenerative components. Afterwards, the patient is injected with the substance in the same day, without the need for hospitalization.

Harvesting bone marrow from the iliac crest does entail some moderate pain. While plenty of numbing medicine is used during the procedure, there will be some mild to moderate discomfort. This may persist for a few days to weeks and slowly subside as the area heals up.

The injection of the prepared bone marrow into the affected joint is no more painful than a typical cortisone injection. For a few days afterwards, the joint may have slight increased pain due to the inflammatory reaction generated. This reaction is normal, as inflammation is the first stage of healing.

As with other types of regenerative medicine, bone marrow derived stem cell injections work better for some cases than for others. There have not been large scale studies to date looking at bone marrow derived stem cell injections in humans. In a 2011 study out of the Beijing Institute of Technology, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were shown to have an excellent potential for cartilage production in animals (Li et al, 2011). A recent study in canines showed that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were effective in repairing bone defects(Kang et al, 2013).

An old knee injury can lead to post-traumatic arthritis.

With the positive results seen in animals, the treatments have been introduced for humans. R3 Stem Cell Clinics has research beginning looking at the effect of bone marrow derived stem cell injections for the following applications:

• Spinal Arthritis in facet joints (neck and back)
• Extremity arthritis including knee arthritis, hip arthritis, ankle and shoulder arthritis
• Sacroiliac Joint Arthritis

Bone marrow derived stem cell injections have as goal to treat the damaged tissue, so that the body can heal. Not only to heal the problem, but to provide pain relief at the same time. Cortisone shots, on the other hand, do not have any other role than pain relief by providing anti-inflammation. While cortisone (steroid) injections are effective, they are not long term.