Stem Cell Shoulder Pain

Effective, quick and safe treatment, without surgery or painkillers.

A research report published by the National Institute of Health mentioned that shoulder pain affects as many as a quarter of Americans, with the frequency of injuries and illnesses increasing after age 45. Shoulder pain often stems from injuries to the rotator cuff, but other cartilage, bones, and soft tissues may also generate substantial or debilitating pain.

If you suffer from pain or reduced mobility in the shoulder, invasive surgery is not your only option. Stem cell therapy and PRP are natural, minimally invasive procedures that promote healing and regeneration at the cellular level. In other words, they stimulate repair of the root cause rather than addressing only the symptoms of pain.

What Shoulder Conditions Can Stem Cell Therapy Help?

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

Rotator cuff tears and tendonitis
Arthritis in the shoulder
Recurrent shoulder dislocation
Labral tears and degeneration
AC joint separation

Patellar Instability
Patellofemoral syndrome (“runner’s knee”)
Baker’s cyst
Biceps femoris tendinopathy
Proximal hamstring tendinopathy (PHT)
Torn or sprained anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), and lateral collateral ligament (LCL)

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 Treatment for Shoulder Pain Vs. Shoulder Surgery

Many medical interventions attempt to restore function and reduce pain. Because the shoulder is such a complex structure, shoulder injuries can be tricky to treat effectively and durably. In fact, the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that rotator cuff surgery results have not improved substantially in the last 30 years. Some patients even experience re-tears and almost zero pain relief after surgical rotator cuff repair procedures. As with all surgeries, patients can expect substantial recovery times as well. In addition, some people are not good candidates for surgery because of age, health, or shoulder problems that surgery will not treat.

Meanwhile, PRP and stem cell therapy only take a few hours in a doctor’s office. A high quality study even demonstrated that 87% of surgical rotator cuff repairs with the addition of bone marrow derived stem cells remain intact ten years after surgery versus only 44% without the stem cells. Because many of our regenerative shoulder treatments only involve an extraction and injection, patients can expect to resume their daily lives shortly after the procedures.

Stem Cell Therapy: A Natural and Safer Alternative

Our stem cell therapy and PRP treatment use the patient’s own cells in an autologous treatment, meaning the cells are sourced from and used on the same person. You don’t have to worry about allergic reactions and rejection, as you would when using donors or artificial or synthetic products. The only risks are the slight ones of infection and bleeding that all injections carry.

Because we extract and concentrate only your own stem cells for re-injection, our stem cell therapy is an FDA-accepted part of the practice of medicine. The 510(k) cleared medical devices we use to produce our regenerative therapies are registered and fully compliant with FDA regulations.

Both regenerative practices help stimulate your body’s natural ability to heal itself. In addition, you should only expect to spend a couple of hours in treatment and are usually free to resume normal activities shortly afterwards.