I entered plastic surgery 20 years ago because plastic surgeons are natural innovators. What I do today isn’t what I did 10 years ago. It isn’t what I did 5 years ago. We constantly push for new things. I loved this article I saw in the Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Journal because it was about helping with knee osteoarthritis.
Yes. Knee arthritis.
I was wondering as well, “What is an article about knee arthritis doing in my plastic surgery journal?” But it makes sense, because it is all about the fat and stem cells (which you know I love and believe in.)
So. “Adipose Derived Stromal Cell Injections for Pain Management of Osteoarthritis in the Human Knee Joint”. This is by Dr. Fodor out of LA. I have heard of these injections. There is a doc in Utah making thousands of dollars a pop injecting stem cells into knee joints. We plastic surgeons deal in stem cells every time we do fat transfer (which is a lot.) The questions are
- Is it safe?
- Does it help with pain?
Study:
- 8 knees
- Adipose derived stromal vascular cells (SVF) were gotten through enzymatic disaggregation of lipoaspirate, resuspended in 3cc of LR solution, and injected directly into the intra articular space of the knee.
- It is thought a mean of 14.1 viable nucleated SVF cells per knee
- They were then assessed on the WOMAC and VAS pain scales, range of motion, timed up and go, and MRI
Findings:
- Safe. No infection, acute pain flares, or other adverse events
- At 3 months, there was statistically significant improvement in WOMAC and VAS scores, which were maintained at 1 year
- MRI showed no detectable structural changes
- All patients had full activity with decreased knee pain.
What do I think?
I LOVE FAT AND STEM CELLS. As I keep saying, there is a key to the future here, of using stem cells for tissue rejuvenation and repair. I love using natural tissue, your own tissue, to heal. I love that this builds and repairs, as opposed to other things like steroids which can weaken and thin the tissue.
I am sure there is more to come. Break out the Ben & Jerry’s. We need more fat.