The Secret of Stem Cell Success

The secret of stem cell success for musculoskeletal problems is ultrasound for diagnosis and for precise needle placement.

Many practitioners provide injections into joints and muscles without ultrasound guidance, thinking they can hit the right spot just by feel and experience. This is a wrong assumption, based on x-ray studies demonstrating the needle often does not go to the intended location. The anatomy of joint structure reveals discrete separation of tissues, bordered by strong margins of ligaments and tendons.

On ultrasound you can see the fluid flowing through the needle into the tissue, and you can see that the fluid does not go past the borders of what you are injecting.

A thorough treatment requires using ultrasound to identify damaged structures, and again using ultrasound to place the needle exactly where it needs to go.

The ideal material to use is the patient’s own adipose tissue, or fat. This provides the largest number of active stem cells, and there is no risk of transmitted disease, as you are giving the patient back his own cells in concentrated form. Age is not a contraindication to using the patient’s own cells, as the stem cells will still be numerous and active. Good nutritional status is the main factor in obtaining active tissues. Patients with poor nutrition, smoking cigarettes or using alcohol or street drugs, are less likely to have a positive result.

We continue to have good results with stem cell therapy in most patients, even those whose problems have lasted for years.

Allan Sosin MD