Suspect Stem Cell Treatments Touted for Knee Arthritis (Medscape)
Hundreds of clinics in the United States are selling stem cell treatments for knee osteoarthritis without solid evidence of their claims, researchers warn.
“People’s expectations have gotten ahead of the science,” said investigator George Muschler, MD, from the Cleveland Clinic, and orthopedic surgeons must be prepared to help their patients evaluate these claims.
“The quality of the literature is relatively sparse,” he told Medscape Medical News.
In a previous study that Muschler was involved in, investigators conducted a systematic review of stem cell treatments for knee osteoarthritis and focal cartilage defects of the knee, and found only four randomized controlled trials and two well-designed controlled trials without randomization (J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2016;98:1511-1521). The other 420 reports they identified were not well-designed trials. Although the results from the six trials were positive, the placebo effect could not be discounted, the team concludes.
This has not, however, stopped clinics from offering these treatments.
Muschler and his colleagues examined the current market for stem cell treatment for ...
