How useful is stem cell therapy for treating shoulder injuries? Shoulder injuries, particularly to the rotator cuff, can be very painful, debilitating and also slow to heal as many professional athletes can attest. Speeding up shoulder injury healing has been the focus of much research and one particular type of treatment that has received a lot of attention in recent years is the application of stem cell therapy to promote shoulder healing. While there has been a proliferation in clinics offering stem cell therapy for the treatment of a wide range of soft tissue and joint injuries, is it really a good treatment option? Here, we’ll look at whether or not stem cell therapies are truly useful in the treatment of shoulder injuries.
What are stem cell therapies? Stem cell treatments and therapies have been a popular area of research for a wide variety of conditions. For years, they have been used in a range of settings such as growing skin stem cells for skin grafts, and blood stem cells to combat diseases. The patient’s own stem cells are harvested – either from fatty tissue or bone marrow – and then delivered into the affected area; the theory behind the science is that your body’s own repair mechanisms are used to promote healing. During the healing process, it is thought that the grafted stem cells are able to differentiate into specialised cells, whether that is muscles, tendons, cartilage or bone, depending on the nature of the injury. They also cause other important cells and growth factors to flood the site of the injury, repairing and regenerating the damaged tissue.
In terms of shoulder treatment, stem cell injections are provided into the affected area. There is no standardised approach and clinics will differ in terms of how the procedure is performed, but generally, it is carried out using image guidance and it’s a minimally invasive treatment. The stem cells are harvested from the patient’s fatty tissue or bone marrow, before being separated and consolidated and injected into the shoulder. Stem cell therapy is largely used to treat partial tears and minor to moderate injuries. If the injury is severe or there’s a full tear, the only effective treatment option would be surgery. Content Source