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a high concentration of stem cells. He used a tiny drill to get into the bone and withdraw cells. This is painless, says Dr. Mead. The doctor then went into the affected knee through some arthroscopic holes and smoothed out the bone surface, to prepare it for the treat- ment. He also flushed out the joint, washing away the chemicals brought on by arthritis that had been contributing to the joint’s breakdown. He then took the stem cell solution, now mixed with placental tissue, and squirted it into the knee, bathing the joint in the solution. When he finished the short procedure, Pence was brought out of her anesthesia and sent home to begin her recovery. The Post-Op Plan Pence was immediately happy with the results of the procedure. “Right away, my pain was gone,” she says. “It was unbelievable.” She set out on her rehab program, which included not putting weight on that knee, and using a motion machine to exercise it. A motion machine, also known as a continuous passive machine, is a device the patient straps her leg into while sitting down or lying back. The machine proceeds to gently bend and straighten the leg—exercising it without putting any weight on the knee. Dr. Mead suggested Pence use the motion machine for six hours a day for the first three weeks after the procedure, which she did. In fact,

was,” she says. “It’s been about four months since the pro- cedure, and I am back to walking an hour and a half on the beach every day. I’m back to golfing. I’m doing a lot of exer- cising in the water. I’m back to all my activities.” And she’s nearly pain-free. “Sometimes I have some pain on the stairs or if I sit for too long. But even that is improving, and the rest of the day, I have no pain.” Dr. Mead, who’s been performing this relatively new treat- ment for about six months, has done around 200 of them, and reports, “The majority of patients are really happy.” But because it is so new, there is little long-term data. “The hope is that this treatment will be more effective in the long run than the traditional knee replacement.” [See sidebar, Stem Cell Use Shows Dramatic Promise.] Adelaide Pence, for one, is a very satisfied customer. “I am thrilled with it,” she says. “It has been super. I’m so glad I did it. I think this stem cell procedure is going to do wonders in many ways.” Stem Cell Use Shows Dramatic Promise A study published last year in the medical journal International Orthopaedics showed that using regenerative stem cell therapy on repairs of the rotator cuff (in the shoulder) caused a dramatic improvement in healing. Of 90 rotator cuff repairs, 45 were treated with stem cell injections and 45 were not. One hundred percent of those treated with stem cells had healed in six months, while just 67 percent of those not treated had healed. At a follow-up 10 years after the initial injection, 87 percent of the stem cell group had an intact rotator cuff, while just 44 percent of the other group did. Because of this large improvement in healing and decrease in re-tears, the stem cell therapy shows great promise for rotator cuff repairs as well as other musculoskeletal injuries.

once she got into the swing of it, she kept it up for six weeks, showing a dedication to her healing as strong as her dedica- tion to her activities before the procedure. Not putting weight on the knee, Dr. Mead explains, is one of the major differences between this procedure and a total knee replacement. “With a knee replacement, you can walk on day one. With this, you have to stay off of it for a while. By the same token, with the stem cell therapy, patients have no pain at all early on. And their later pain levels are lower than with a total knee replacement.” Why is keeping the weight off the knee important? After the surgeon abrades the joint surface, a sort of scab forms there. This is where the stem cells deposit themselves in order to grow a new and healthier joint surface. If that “scab” is continually scraped off (with weight on the knee), the stem cells will not have a chance to regenerate the surface area. There will be nowhere for them to take root. And how is Pence now? “It’s 100 percent better than it

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APRIL-JUNE 2016 NAPLES HEALTH