Each year, about 600,000 Americans seek treatment for Osteoarthritis. About 50 percent of them have severe knee pain and spend over $150 billion dollars in the pursuit of relief. Unfortunately, knee experts (mainly surgeons) believe there is no cure for knee degradation from Osteoarthritis. They believe that knee-replacement is the only option. In this blog, I’ll discuss a simple, non-invasive solution that we offer at New Jersey Pain Care Specialists for superior relief from Osteoarthritis joint pain without the anxiety, risk and recovery process of surgery.
What is Osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in the knee – a “wear and tear” type of arthritis that can affect people of all ages. Very simply, it happens when cartilage in the knee wears out.
The natural solution to this problem is to repair the cartilage. Surgeons will tell you there is no solution that can repair and renew cartilage in the joints, especially knee and hip. I – and many other pain management experts around the world – beg to differ. We point with pride and confidence to our successful experience using platelet rich plasma therapy.
Study: Surgery vs. PRP
Bioresearch Foundation of Milan, Italy did a 2-year PPR study on 93 patients with advancing osteoarthritis – people who were perfect candidates for knee surgery. Instead of surgery the Bioresearch team administered a simple course of three monthly PRP injections. They treated a total of 119 knees, and after 12 months they randomly boosted the dosage of 50 patients to six monthly PRP injections.
The Results
All of the Osteoarthritis patients experienced significant improvement in pain, mobility and disability – which was tested throughout and at the end of 24 months. The 50 patients who had six monthly injections after month 12, enjoyed even more improvement. At this point in the study, MRI testing showed that surgery was completely unnecessary for all participants.
Be wary of surgery
If you suffer from Osteoarthritis joint pain, consider a knee or hip joint replacement very carefully. Oftentimes, a worn out cartilage isn’t the cause of the pain, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine: An MRI might show cartilage wear and tear, but just about everyone has some degeneration. Plus, for a number of patients, the pain relief was greater for those who had surgery than for those treated with platelet rich plasma therapy. Keep in mind, too, that PRP is a minimally-invasive one-hour procedure that uses a small amount the patient’s own blood to provide safe, natural healing.
Not sure?
Our staff at NJ Pain Care Specialists is always available and glad to answer your questions and discuss your individual situation.
At the present time, PRP Treatments are not covered by medical insurance.
