The most common treatments for osteoarthritis are anti-inflammatory medications, pain medications, and physical exercise. Surgeries may be recommended in severe cases. But there is a new treatment kid on the block, a treatment known as ortho-biologic therapy. Does it work? Is it right for you?
Osteoarthritis by the Numbers
Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disorder in the United States. It affects an estimated 32.5 million adults. In addition to the chronic pain it causes, osteoarthritis also rears its ugly head in ways that have measurable economic and personal costs.
Here are a few additional statistics you might find interesting:
- 43% of osteoarthritis patients are 65 or older.
- 88% of patients are 45 or older.
- 62% of osteoarthritis patients are women.
- 55-64 is the age range in which most cases of knee osteoarthritis are diagnosed.
Interestingly, osteoarthritis is more common among men in patients younger than 45. After age 45, the disease is more common in women. No matter how you look at it though, osteoarthritis is a painful condition that doesn’t resolve on its own. It is also degenerative, meaning it is likely to get worse for most people as they age.
More About Ortho-Biologic Therapy
While traditional treatments for osteoarthritis are based in pharmacology, ortho-biologic therapy is different. Ortho-biologic therapy is a form of regenerative medicine, according to the expert pain medicine doctors at Lone Star Pain Medicine in Weatherford, TX.
What makes it so different is the use of biologically derived substances. Rather than treating osteoarthritis with medications made in a lab, patients are treated with material taken from their own bodies. The two most common types of material are blood and mesenchymal stem cells.
Ortho-biologic therapies are designed to do four primary things:
- Reduce inflammation.
- Stimulate tissue regeneration.
- Improve joint lubrication.
- Modulate the immune response.
In addition to relieving pain, ortho-biologic therapies are often recommended in hopes of slowing the progression of the disease. If platelet rich plasma (PRP) or stem cell injections can slow things down, patients can enjoy a higher quality of life for longer.
PRP and Stem Cell Injections
Among the four ortho-biologic therapies typically recommended for osteoarthritis, PRP and stem cell injections are the most common. Both are minimally invasive and generally considered safe due to the use of biological material provided by the patient himself.
- PRP Injections – PRP therapy relies on concentrated platelets derived from the patient’s own blood. The platelets, combined with natural growth factors found in human blood, inhibit inflammation and stimulate cartilage repair. They can also improve joint lubrication.
- Stem Cell Injections – Stem cell injections rely on mesenchymal cells harvested from bone marrow or adipose fat. These are stem cells that can differentiate into the very types of tissues necessary to help osteoarthritis. Cartilage is the big one.
It’s believed ortho-biologic therapy works best when it is utilized in the early stages of osteoarthritis. Treatments are intended mainly for patients with early to moderate osteoarthritis for whom more traditional treatments have not yielded the best results.
The Evidence Is Generally Favorable
Although the evidence in support of ortho-biologic therapies is not conclusive, it is generally favorable. Ortho-biologics seem to help many patients at least as well as more conservative treatments. Some patients actually do better.
All of us are likely to experience osteoarthritis at some point. If the pain gets to be too much for traditional pain medications and anti-inflammatories, ortho-biologic treatments are an alternative to more invasive surgeries. Things like PRP and stem cell injections may not work for everyone, but they do seem to work for a fair number of patients.
