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Most of the time, our database nurse highlights patient reported outcomes for me to review as we receive them. We’re not perfect and sometimes we find patients that won’t respond or respond minimally, but most of the time the results are very positive. The forms we use are generally scientifically validated, so they can be pretty dry reading. Everyone once in awhile we’ll get patients that go beyond just filling in the pain and functional data and add some comments. These naturally catch my eye as they add a bit more color amidst the dry data. Today I came across one that was too good not to share. PP is a 51 year old white male s/p a traumatic tibial plateau fracture of the knee many years ago, who now has complete thickness cartilage loss in that area. The tibial plateau is the bottom on the knee joint, where the meniscus tissues sit. He is now a few months out from his knee procedure (where we placed his own stem cells into this area of the tibial plateau under x-ray guidance). I think I’ll just let him do the talking from here (from his outcome form that he filled in on-line):

“(I can)…Get up from behind my desk and immediately walk normally instead of limping for the first 20+ steps! Seriously, I can now teach my spinning classes with no pain or swelling afterwards and I can walk or stand for extended periods with no discomfort. I feel like I have my old leg back.”

“This whole procedure was soooo easy. From the bone marrow draw through the re-injections, there was virtually no pain (ever), and the appts take very little time – you are in and out. Even the price, considering my quality of life improvement, was a bargain.”

PP reports 90% improvement with more range of motion. He also has another comment which takes a swipe at the traditional orthopedic approach, which I didn’t show in the name of political correctness. I think what he is trying to convey there is not uncommon among our patients. They are actively searching for a better and less invasive way to solve their knee problems that doesn’t involve surgery.

This patient was treated with the Regenexx-C (cultured stem cell injections). As always, not every knee patient we treat would be expected to get this result.

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