Shoulder Rotator Cuff Tear Treatment Case Study

Dr. Centeno’s Analysis:

JG is a 34 year old white male who injured his shoulder in a car crash. There was an AC joint injury as well as a suspected labraltear with impingement. He failed physical therapy and subsequently underwent a sub-acromialdecompression. Regrettably, this surgery failed and a new rotator cuff tear was identified in more advanced post-op imaging (3.0 Tesla MRI). JG was reluctant to undergo more surgery, so he volunteered for our stem cell tendon repair study.

Outcome:

The patient underwent stem cell harvest and expansion using our patent pending technique. We planned his injection procedures using the pre-op MRI images and used our patent pending x-ray guidance system to inject cells directly into the rotator cuff tear. He underwent a series of injections after that (2 more) and was allowed full activity (he remained working and adjusting patients during this treatment). He had about a week of post-operative soreness.

Images/Data:

The next page contains his before and after MRI’s, showing good healing of the rotator cuff tear. The most unique part of this therapy is that if his torn rotator cuff had been surgically repaired, JG would have needed a bracing (shown below). This is because a surgical rotator cuff repair causes significant trauma and this needs to heal in an set position for several weeks. If the patient doesn’t do this the sutures can fail, causing more tearing. This immobility can lead to more muscle atrophy, and for JG it would have meant taking weeks off before returning to work (he works with his hands all day). In addition, physical therapy is then required to build back up the strength lost to the bracing. We are encouraged by JG’s results in this study and will continue to research and refine our injection based rotator cuff repair procedures before we feel comfortable releasing these to the general public.

For more information, please contact us at 303-495-4014 or toll-free at 1-888-525-3005.

Shoulder Rotator Cuff Treatment Click for Larger View.