How Regenerative Orthopedics Helps Athletes Avoid Surgery

There are a few generalizations that people can make about athletes, and one of the top ones is that nobody likes to be sidelined. While sports injuries are responsible for benching scores of athletes, adding surgery to the mix can really prolong the forced timeout.

Over the past couple of decades, however, sports enthusiasts and orthopedists are finding a better path forward through regenerative orthopedics.

As a physician who specializes in sports medicine, Dr. Moisés Irizarry-Román has been at the forefront of tapping the incredible power of orthobiologics at No Mercy Sports Medicine. For musculoskeletal injuries of all kinds, we offer stem cell therapies and platelet-rich plasma treatments that are helping our athlete patients stay in the game and out of the operating room.

The benefits of regenerative orthopedics

Across almost every medical specialty, the goal is fast becoming how to best tap the regenerative resources inside the body to help heal and rebuild. Whether it’s a failing organ or a damaged joint, scientists are discovering new ways to approach health issues from a more sustainable perspective and less of an interventional one.

In plainer terms, surgical repair of musculoskeletal issues is great, but wouldn't it be better to encourage the body to make the repairs on a cellular level? Wouldn’t the end result be less invasive and stronger? 

The short answer is yes, and this answer lies in stem cells and platelets.

The amazing ability of stem cells

Let’s start with one of the most incredible resources available in the body — stem cells. These cells are the building blocks upon which all other cells are formed. For example, a developing human fetus is full of pluripotent stem cells that can become any cell and then multiply as that cell.

Adults still have stem cells, but they’re less powerful than embryonic ones. That said, they’re still in charge of repairs in the body and they’re still strong enough to differentiate on a smaller scale and self-renew.

And it’s to these cells that we turn to for regenerative orthopedics. We harvest the stem cells from your own body, usually from your hip bone, and we redirect them to the site of your sports injury — where they can get to work to rebuild tissues, cell by cell.

The power of platelets

While our stem cell therapy is great for healing and repairs, we have another orthobiologic treatment that can also help athletes avoid surgery — platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy.

Platelets are cells in your blood that are in charge of initiating the four-stage healing cascade:

1. Hemostasis
2. Inflammation
3. Cell proliferation
4. Remodeling

Platelets accomplish this by releasing a number of important growth factors that promote healing. These growth factors also create a call for additional resources in your body, including the aforementioned stem cells. 

With PRP therapy, we draw a sample of your blood, isolate the platelets in a centrifuge, and inject the concentrate of platelets into your sports injury. Once injected, the platelets release the growth factors to get your injury on the road to recovery.

The role of regenerative orthopedics

We’ve had great success with regenerative orthopedics for a wide range of issues that athletes present with, including:

• Tendinopathies, such as tendonitis
• Ligament damage, such as ACL tears and ankle sprains
• Rotator cuff tears
• Meniscus tears
• Osteoarthritis
• Bursitis

This list is far from complete, but it gives you an idea about the wide range of issues that can benefit from regenerative orthopedics.

If you’re an athlete looking to avoid surgery and heal more naturally and stronger through regenerative medicine, we invite you to contact No Mercy Sports Medicine in Miami, Florida, by calling 305-614-6757. You can also request an appointment by sending us a message online.