New Outcome Data in Blackberry / Texting Thumb Patients


Chronic thumb pain is tough.  We all rely on our thumb to lift, grasp, or manipulate things. People with severe pain in the hand joints can’t do these things or pay for it when they do.  We have always treated small joints with our stem cell re-implant injection procedure (Regenexx) and have patients who have done well. What we didn’t have was long-term data on how our patients with CMC joint arthritis (blackberry or texting thumb) were doing.  Out this am is the 1 year follow-up data on a group of 6 patients who were all facing invasive thumb surgeries including the removal of a wrist bone and the insertion of a coiled up tendon or a thumb joint replacement. In our case series, the average reported relief by the patients is 70%, with over 80% of them reporting more than 50% relief and 2/3’rds reporting more than 75% relief.  Realize that none of these patients had surgery, simply their stem cells taken from the back of the hip and then re-injected into the thumb joint using x-ray guidance.  In addition, with the Regenexx-SD hand stem cell procedure, which produces a similar number of these stem cells as we would have injected with the cultured cell procedure, but in a more convenient 1-2 day same procedure format, these patients now don’t have to wait 4-6 weeks to grow cells in the lab or take the risk that their cells might not grow well in culture.  Our small joint thumb patients can get their stem cells back in the joint more quickly using a less expensive procedure.

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Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile

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NOTE: This blog post provides general information to help the reader better understand regenerative medicine, musculoskeletal health, and related subjects. All content provided in this blog, website, or any linked materials, including text, graphics, images, patient profiles, outcomes, and information, are not intended and should not be considered or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please always consult with a professional and certified healthcare provider to discuss if a treatment is right for you.

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