Stem Cell Therapy for Elbow Pain

Effective, quick and safe treatment without surgery or painkillers.

The elbow is a common victim of sports and other active lifestyle injuries because it’s the focal point for throwing, twisting, swinging, and other motions. Overuse through repetition of any of these motions can lead to pain in the cartilage, ligaments, or tendons that surround and support the three bones–the upper arm bone and two forearm bones–that come together at this joint.

Whether you’ve experienced one of these types of injuries, have sustained an impact injury, or suffer from a lingering condition such as arthritis, stem cell therapy or PRP may be your best path toward lasting recovery without the need for surgery or medication.

What Elbow Conditions Can Stem Cell Therapy Help?

Common elbow problems that can be addressed with stem cell therapy include:

Arthritis
Bursitis
Chronic Instability
Lateral epicondylitis (Tennis Elbow)

Medial epicondylitis (Golfer’s Elbow)
Medial epicondyle apophysitis (Pitcher’s elbow)
Ulnar nerve entrapment (Cubital Tunnel Syndrome)
Partial distal biceps tendon tear

How Do the Procedures Work?

Our regenerative medicine therapies vary slightly in the materials they use and from where they’re derived, but from the patient’s perspective they are quite similar:

Stem Cell Therapy

Extraction

As you lie facedown on a table, the doctor extracts bone marrow aspirate from your hip with a special needle. You may experience mild discomfort but the majority of patients tolerate this easily.

Concentration

To concentrate the adult stem cells and platelets in the marrow fluid into BMC, the aspirate is spun in a centrifuge for up to 15 minutes.

Injection

The doctor re-injects the stem cell-rich, concentrated BMC into the area of pain.

Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy

Extraction

The doctor draws a blood sample from your arm, just like in a routine blood test.

Concentration

The blood we’ve drawn is spun in a centrifuge to separate the growth factor-containing platelets from the other components in the plasma. The PRP is then removed.

Injection

With the PRP material prepared, it is injected into the damaged tissue, disc, joint, or tendon, using x-ray or ultrasound guidance, if necessary.

A platelet-rich plasma treatment will seem like simply giving blood from your arm, except in this case the now-enhanced blood is re-injected at the end.

Stem Cell Therapy vs Traditional Elbow Treatment

For both forms of elbow tendonitis–golfer’s elbow and tennis elbow–doctors typically first prescribe a combination of rest, ice, physical therapy, and over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicines (NSAIDs). Steroid injections in the elbow often follow when those measures fail. Some patients even progress to surgery to remove damaged tissue and/or scar tissue buildup if pain persists.

In contrast, stem cell therapy not only reduces the pain by alleviating inflammation, it actually addresses the root of the problem: the stem cells help the tissue heal itself. The result is a longer-lasting solution that’s lower cost and requires a shorter recovery time than surgery.

Safe & Natural Procedures to Overcome Pain

PRP and adult mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) injections are autologous, which means they’re obtained from the same individual who’s using them. So while they still carry the slight risk of infection or bleeding that all injections involve, there’s effectively no risk of allergic reaction or rejection of the patient’s own PRP or stem cells.

Both types of therapies are minimally invasive and adhere to all relevant FDA guidelines. The MSC therapy we provide is an FDA-accepted part of the practice of medicine, because we only process and apply the cells you already have in your body. We produce PRP using 510(k) cleared medical devices, registered and fully compliant with FDA regulations.