CONDITIONS

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Neck & Back Arthritis and Spine Disease

 

Treatment Benefits:
Our neck and back pain and arthritis treatments can relieve the chronic pain experienced by 15-20% of people in the United States. Back and neck pain affects males and females equally and can occur at any age, with the majority of initial episodes happening at ages 20-40. Even though back and neck pain can be attributed to biological and mechanical causes, most of these are benign, although a small number of cases are due to a more serious illness. The most common causes of back and neck pain include degeneration, such as osteoarthritis, muscle strain, mechanical problems, such as a herniated disc, and vertebral fractures associated with osteoporosis. Stromal Vascular Fraction Stem Cell Therapy, otherwise known as SVF, includes the drawing of stromal vascular fraction cells for stem cell reproduction. This is used for the following types of neck and back arthritis pain, as well as for spine disease.

Disk Extrusion or Protrusions:
Both a disc extrusion and disc protrusion are a type of intervertebral disc herniation, but an extrusion extends above or below the disc level, whereas a protrusion does not extend above or below the disc level. SVF can be deployed as an epidural injection at the disk level where the pain occurs, but if an interventional radiology or spine specialist is involved, SVF might be deployed intra-diskal.

Disk Annular Tears:
A disk annular tear is an extremely common form of spinal degeneration. Even the smallest tear can cause inflammation, which may provide an explanation for chronic lower back pain. While it can result from a traumatic injury, it is more common to see this result from degenerative changes that occur with age. The resulting pain is usually inflammatory in nature, and SVF can be deployed as an epidural injection or intra-diskal at the point of pain.

Facet Arthropathy:
Degenerative arthritis affecting the facet joints in the spine is what is known as facet arthropathy. In the area of the spine where the facet joints are located, arthritis-like pain can develop and chronically affect the patient. SVF should be deployed as an intra-facet injection into all targets for these kinds of pain sufferers.

All deployments for neck and back arthritis as well as spine disease should preferably be done under radiographic guidance and be performed by physicians with expertise in facet or epidural injections.

Joint Problems

What Causes Joint Pain?

Joint pain is a type of discomfort that arises from any joint – the point where two or more bones meet – and can range from mild (causing some soreness each time you move your joint) to severe (making it impossible to use your joint at all). It is rarely an emergency, but if left untreated, can become a large obstacle in daily life. Joint problems and pain can have a plethora of different causes. The most common occurrences are in the knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, hands and ankles, and the causes can include bone cancers, broken bones, dislocation, fibromyalgia, gout, lupus, osteoarthritis, arthritis, tendinitis and several more disorders. When the ligaments in the joints can no longer stabilize joints, muscles and tendons will tense up, often causing a person’s joint pain. When these soft tissues can no longer do the stabilizing work, the bone surfaces rub against each other, causing inflammation and irritation. As the condition develops, the bone around the affected area thickens, increasing the degeneration via rubbing.

Treatment

Joint issues including the knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, hands and ankle are usually treated with an outpatient operation or injection. Fluoro, ultrasound, or interventional radiology are sometimes used to facilitate deployment of the injection, and MRI evaluations for meniscal problems, which are used to identify limitations of therapy, may be incorporated where appropriate. To numb the area of injection, the skin will be “frozen” with ethyl chloride or another appropriate numbing agent, and approximately 30% of SVF will be administered via an IV infusion given at the time of injection. The entire procedure should last around 30 minutes.

Erectile Dysfunction

The Stem Cell Institute offers a variety of treatment plans to combat erectile dysfunction, including lifestyle monitoring and SVF injections. 

What is Erectile Dysfunction?

Erectile dysfunction can result from a problem originating in one of the body’s many complex processes. Stress and mental health concerns can cause or worsen this disorder, as well as a combination of physical and psychological issues. For example, a minor and unrelated physical condition that slows a man’s sexual response can cause anxiety about performance, and this anxiety can lead to or worsen erectile dysfunction. In most cases however, it is caused by something physical, such as heart disease, clogged blood vessels, high cholesterol, diabetes and even obesity.

Treatment

Aside from regular treatment for these types of pre-existing conditions, SVF can be utilized in order to treat erectile dysfunction in men. By using extremely high numbers of fat cell SVF injections administered intracavernosally into one side of the penile muscles of the penis with a needle, the cell residence in the penile muscles will be optimized. Intracavernosal Trimix may also be utilized as an aid in this process. For those who opt for the latter option, they will also receive a series of shockwave therapy treatments during and after the SVF deployment procedure in an effort to stimulate vascular and endothelial repair and angiogenesis. This will help achieve improvement in the erectile dysfunction patients experience.

Interstitial Cystitis (Painful Bladder Syndrome)

What is Interstitial Cystitis?

Interstitial cystitis – also known as painful bladder syndrome – is a chronic condition in which the sufferer experiences bladder pressure, bladder pain and sometimes pelvic pain, which can range from mild discomfort to severe pain. Interstitial cystitis most often occurs in women, and can have a long-lasting impact on one’s quality of life. Interstitial cystitis is defined as “an unpleasant sensation perceived to be related to the urinary bladder, associated with lower urinary tract symptoms of more than 6 weeks duration, in the absence of infection or other identifiable causes,” according to new American IC/BPS guidelines in 2009.

Treatment Benefits

Although there is no treatment or cure that reliably eliminates the disease indefinitely, SVF can be applied to aid in the relief of pain that occurs from the syndrome. In stem cell therapy, two-thirds of the donor’s SVF will be administered via IV infusion in these types of procedures, and the remaining third is deployed directly at the point of the pain with a special “gauge needle.” The fatty stem cells are regenerative in nature and have proven to aid in the healing and pain relief process for these types of syndromes.

Following the brief and simple outpatient procedure, the patient is advised to participate in aggressive barrier therapy every week for a month. For the next three months after the initial month of barrier therapy, the frequency of the sessions can decrease to twice a month. It is also strongly suggested that the use of pentosan in liposomes be practiced. It is known that patients with interstitial cystitis demonstrate abnormal cell signaling and cytokine release, and it is for this reason stem cell treatment can be helpful for patients who exhibit muscular damage from the disease. Although regenerative healing naturally takes time and immediate improvement in symptoms is not expected, SVF will help aid in the pain relief from the syndrome, and patients will be observed closely over time in order to track effectiveness of the treatment.

Neurology / Neurological Disorders

Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, neuropathy, muscular dystrophy, and ALS all receive the same neurological procedures, where SVF is administered via IV infusion. The Stem Cell Institute offers this treatment option to combat these debilitating ailments. 

Treatment Procedure

Within 45 minutes of deployment, the patient will be treated with an IV of mannitol over a period of 20 minutes (although this is not required for muscular dystrophy or peripheral neuropathy procedures). The cells are derived from fat – an exceptionally abundant source of stem cells – that have been extracted, and the source of the regenerative stem cells come from SVF. SVF is a protein-rich segment from processed adipose tissue and will be infused for more than 30 minutes intravenously. Repeat treatments may be required every 6 to 12 weeks, depending on patient response to the procedure. Our advanced technology allows us to isolate high numbers of viable cells that we can deploy during the same surgical setting.

 

Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a debilitating neurologic disease that is believed to be caused by destruction of the myelin sheaths around axons of the brain and spinal column. The loss of the myelin impacts the ability of the tissues to conduct signals, and the inflammatory process can lead to scarring, resulting in a wide range of symptoms such as numbness or weakness in one or more limbs, partial or complete loss of vision and double or blurry vision. Although there is no known cure for the defects that accompany multiple sclerosis, there is a treatment. SVF treatments can utilize the beneficial properties of stem cells for regenerative medicine stem cell harvesting and deployment.

Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive degenerative disorder which affects the central nervous system, and approximately one million Americans have the disease. It is a chronic and progressive disorder that is believed to be caused by degeneration of the dopamine-generating cells in the brain;however, the cause is unknown, and no cure exists. There is focused treatment that can manage and minimize these symptoms. By deploying SVF for PD sufferers, the Pain Relief Center is able to utilize the anti-inflammatory and regenerative properties of the patient’s stem cells to aid in the symptoms associated with the disease.

Stroke

Strokes are very common – approximately 800,000 episodes occur each year – and come with several different signs and symptoms, such as trouble with speaking, paralysis or numbness of the face, arms or legs, vision impairments in one or both eyes, extensive headaches and difficulty with walking. While strokes can be difficult to recover from, management of the symptoms and improvement are possible. The regenerative properties of SVF suggest that improvements can be made months or even years after a stroke has occurred. Stroke management involves long-term therapy, which usually can take place in a series of two-hour outpatient sessions.

 

Peripheral Neuropathy

Peripheral neuropathy is a degenerative disorder that affects the nerves, typically those of the hands and feet. This disorder has many causes, including traumatic injuries, infections, metabolic issues and exposure to a wide array of toxins. One of the most common causes of PN is diabetes, and the symptoms of numbness and moderate to severe pain are very common. This pain can be treated with SVF, as the regenerative properties of the adult stem cells are optimistic to help ease and reduce pain associated with the neuropathy disorder.

Muscular Dystrophy

Muscular dystrophy is a degenerative disease that causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass, typically in the legs. The cause of which is the interference of abnormal genes with the production of proteins needed to form and maintain healthy muscle. Symptoms usually begin in childhood and primarily occur in boys. However, certain types of muscular dystrophy don’t surface until adulthood. These types typically cause the sufferer to lose the ability to walk and even experience pain while breathing or swallowing. While there is no cure for the disease, there are several types of therapy that can help manage the symptoms. SVF is one of the most progressive forms of therapy for muscular dystrophy, and the regenerative nature of the fatty adult stem cells that are extracted from the patient can help improve the degeneration and ease the symptoms associated with the disease.

 

ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The degeneration of the motor neurons eventually leads to their demise, and when the neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement throughout the body is lost. Severe cases result in the loss of ability to eat, speak, move and breathe independently. Because this disease affects the nerves, effective treatments for these conditions are limited. However, stem cell therapy can be utilized to help ease the pain and aid in the regeneration of the lost neurons.

Other

 

Stem cell therapy has successfully treated more than 80 diseases, healing conditions from immune illnesses to neurological disorders. Among the extensive list of diseases treated with stem cells are conditions such as:

 

  • Back & Lower Back Problems
  • Knee problems
  • Hip problems
  • Shoulder problems
  • Elbow & Hand problems
  • Leg & Ankle problems
  • Muscle, Injury & Joint Pain
  • Neck Problems
  • Degenerative Disc Disease
  • Spinal Stenosis
  • Migraines/Headaches
  • Chronic prostatitis
  • Erectile Dysfunction
  • Acute Leukemia, m
  • MMyeloproliferative Disorders
  • Inherited Metabolic Disorders (and several other inherited disorders)

TAKE ACTION

 

The ultimate goal of all of our procedures is the riddance of pain, a simple yet life-changing benefit of choosing the right pain management doctor for you. Engage in your favorite activities, enjoy the time with the ones you love and return to your way of living, pain-free. Contact The Stem Cell Institute today for more information or to schedule an appointment!

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