Back, Spine And SI Joint Injuries
Stem Cell and PRP Treatments

The answer depends on many different variables, as no two injuries or conditions are alike. The severity of the injury, your activity level and your ultimate health goals all play a part in determining the number of treatments necessary.

Do you want to run ultramarathons? Or sit on the floor to play with your grandchildren? On average, our patients receive one to three rounds of injections. Often, one round of injections is enough to help our patients return to their regular activities.

In a normal course of treatment, we do one round of injections and wait until you reach a plateau in your improvement (normally about four months post-treatment). At that point, we determine together if you’ve reached your recovery goal. If there is still room for improvement, we may recommend another round of injections.

This depends on the severity of your condition and the level of activity that is “normal” for you. Typically, there is an increase in pain for two weeks after the procedure, as your body’s natural inflammatory response goes to work healing your damaged tissue. Everyone heals at different rates, however, and the process could take longer or shorter than two weeks.

The healing process isn’t strictly linear, either. It is more like a roller coaster – there are good days and bad days. You should see measurable improvement after four months and an overall improvement in your quality of life by the end of the healing process.

Stem cells are usually harvested from a patient’s healthy fat tissue or bone marrow. To harvest PRP, we draw your blood and then concentrate the platelets. We then precisely inject the stem cells and concentrated platelets into the damaged area, and both orthobiologics go to work to help repair the damaged tissues.

We typically use both stem cells and PRP when treating patients, however, there are times when we use just PRP. Every treatment plan varies according to the individual needs of our patients.

We work with two different types of cells. The first type of cell comes from your own healthy fat tissue and bone marrow. These are defined as autologous, as they come from your own body.

There are many living stem cells in these tissues (much more in fat than in bone marrow). The fat is typically obtained from women in the lateral thighs and buttocks. In men, it is typically obtained from the flank or abdomen.

The second type of cell does not come from your body. These cells are allogeneic cells and include placental, amniotic or umbilical cord tissue. These tissues contain healthy growth factors that boost your body’s natural healing mechanisms. Typically discarded, these tissues are gathered safely and ethically and no babies are harmed in the process.