Mountain Climbing with Bad Knees: Chamonix After Knee Stem Cell Procedures
I love getting pics or videos of our patients doing the things they love due to a Regenexx procedure. This is Mike’s story, who just sent this great video of himself mountain climbing in France. That’s because Mike was losing the ability to do things like this and was looking at a knee replacement until he ditched the surgery and went with a Regenexx procedure.
Mountain Climbing with Bad Knees: Mike’s Story
Mike is a successful adventure-sports entrepreneur from Vail, Colorado. When Dr. Hyzy first saw him, he had already gone through bilateral knee arthroscopies and a lateral release. Like many of our patients, he had no specific injury; however, his knees just began aching these past few years.
Climbing stairs, skiing, and hiking made things worse, which is a real issue when your loves are skiing and climbing mountains. Hiking downhill was the worst. So how could this adventure-sports enthusiast go mountain climbing with bad knees?
Despite his previous arthroscopies and a lateral release for a kneecap that wasn’t tracking correctly, he was still in pain. Knee gel injections (SynVisc) didn’t help, and he had also tried a blind, bedside-centrifuge PRP injection, which also didn’t help.
Dr. Hyzy evaluated him at the turn of the year and recognized that his low back was also involved with his knee pain. Mike had irritated nerves and arthritic facet joints that needed to be addressed. His knees also had lost cartilage and had swelling in the bone marrow, inflamed and damaged tendons, and loose ligaments, all of which also needed to be precisely injected.
About six months ago, Dr. Hyzy injected our third-generation platelet lysate epidural (around the irritated nerves) and high-dose PRP into the facet joints of his low back. He also had a high-dose bone marrow concentrate procedure which contains stem cells where all of the above areas were addressed. This required advanced skills, as this meant not only injecting the joint using ultrasound guidance but also the bone lesions using fluoroscopy, and the multitude of tendons and ligaments that were involved.
How did Mike do? Check out the video he sent Dr. Hyzy above where he is no longer mountain climbing with bad knees!
The Post-Game Analysis
The blind PRP injection that he had before he visited us was with a system that barely produces more platelets than whole blood. This is a big issue with many bedside systems as even the best of them were only designed to produce 5–7X platelet-rich plasma (PRP). In our research, many older patients, like Mike, need much higher doses, which is what Dr. Hyzy used (14X) with the bone marrow stem cells. No bedside machine can do this, so all of Mike’s injectables were prepared in our advanced lab facilities.
In addition, moderate knee arthritis, like Mike’s, is less likely to respond to PRP. In fact, most studies only show short-term results on the order of a few months if any response. Finally, we have absolutely no high-quality research that any of the surgeries Mike received can help knee pain or stave off arthritis.
There was also a stark difference between the stem cells isolated from Mike’s bone marrow and what the average physician can produce using a simple bedside machine. Meaning, with the procedure that Mike had, we were able to increase the stem cell content of his bone marrow much higher than bedside systems can because we used a proprietary protocol in a lab. We call this “high-dose” bone marrow concentrate.
To learn more about how Regenexx is very different, see my video below:
The upshot? As I said, I love getting videos and pics of patients doing things they couldn’t do before their Regenexx procedure. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Mike’s video speaks volumes about how he’s doing after his procedure.
If you have questions or comments about this blog post, please email us at [email protected]
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.