Texas Docs Injecting Stem Cells (Bilione Young @ OTW)
Dr. Robert Johnson, an orthopedic surgeon in Austin, Texas, took stem cells from the bone marrow of the hip of a 59-year-old man and injected it back into the patient’s knee joints. The result? Johnson said the stem cells reduced inflammation and pain and then became the cartilage that the man was missing.
Johnson is part of a nonprofit medical group called MedRebels—funded primarily by two local medical product and research companies. The operating premise of MedRebels is that more people could stay active and possibly disease free in the future if the medical community would give regenerative medicine and adult stem cells a chance.
Johnson has been using adult stem cell therapies on his patients with spine fusions and other joint problems. The therapy is done on an outpatient basis. Johnson has had to do a second procedure on a few patients when the pain came back after a year or so. The risks, he said, are minimal including the risk of infection at the injection points in the bone and any risk that comes along with sedation. The long-term effects are still unknown.
This is a biologic step," said Johnson. "This gets away from...
