Regenerative medicine is the branch of medicine that develops methods to regrow, repair or replace damaged or diseased cells, organs or tissues is quickly becoming more popular in orthopedic and sports medicine circles because of its ability to tap your body’s natural healing resources and redirect them to where you need it most. Regenerative medicine includes platelet-rich plasma (PRP), prolotherapy and Cell Therapies. At Geraci Spine and Sports Medicine in Williamsville, New York, Michael C. Geraci Jr., MD PT helps his patients heal faster with the powerful tools that nature has already provided. To learn more about regenerative medicine, call to book an appointment.
Regenerative medicine uses your body’s natural healing resources to help regenerate injured or weakened tissue. The three main types of regenerative medicine are prolotherapy, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy and cell therapies.
Prolotherapy is an injection-based proliferation therapy, mostly commonly a dextrose solution. The solution will trigger the body's healing response. Once activated, the body will start to strengthen and repair damaged tendons, ligaments and joint cartilage.
Your blood contains four ingredients: red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma. Your platelets perform a crucial role in clotting and have hundreds of proteins (growth factors). These proteins have exceptional healing properties. The difficulty has always been isolating and redirecting them.
To do this, Dr. Geraci draws some of your blood and places it in a centrifuge to separate out your platelets. He then mixes the concentrated platelets with your platelet-poor plasma to keep the platelet concentration in the healing range. He then injects the mixture in the area of your target tissue or joint. These concentrated growth factors from your platelets allow a healing process to occur regenerating, the tissue rather than just scar formation.
Once you’re born, you still have regenerative cells in your bone marrow and fatty tissue, but they mostly lie dormant until they’re needed. These cells may be undifferentiated, meaning they don't have a singular purpose. Instead, they can become whatever cell is needed once injected into a joint or tissue.
With cell therapies, Dr. Geraci removes and isolates cells from your bone marrow or fatty tissue and injects them into the areas where your body needs it. These cells then trigger more specialized cells to come to the area and, together, they turn into whatever cells are needed to heal and regenerate the area.
Dr. Geraci has had great success using both PRP and cell therapies with the following injuries or conditions:
If you’d like to find out more about the incredible power of regenerative medicine, call Geraci Spine and Sports medicine.
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