Understanding Regenerative Medicine
What is Regenerative Sports Medicine?
Alison Ganong, MD combines traditional sports medicine with regenerative medicine techniques including platelet rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell injections. PRP is made from your blood and has high concentrations of growth factors. Stem cells are cells in your body that help repair injuries. Injecting PRP or stem cells into an injury stimulates healing.
Regenerative medicine starts with a good understanding of your diagnosis.
Your medical diagnosis will determine if you are a candidate for these types of therapies. During a consultation with Dr. Ganong you will be evaluated based on your physical exam and imaging studies and she will go over all of the methods you have tried so far for treatment. She may also use diagnostic ultrasound to scan the area of your body that is injured to determine and confirm the diagnosis.
Either on the same visit or on a subsequent visit she will perform the regenerative medicine injection again using musculoskeletal ultrasound to place the agent exactly where it is needed to heal the tissue.
What types of injuries usually qualify to be treated with regenerative medicine?
Examples of conditions that are ideal for these treatments are rotator cuff partial tears, tennis elbow, Achilles tendon problems and knee or hip arthritis.