Stem Cell Therapy For Hips

Why do I have hip pain?

The hip is the largest joint in the human body. It's where the body's largest bones, the femur (thigh bone) and the ilium (iliac crest bone, pelvic bone), join together to support the whole weight of the body in both static (standing) and dynamic (walking or running) postures.

The hip is also a multi-axial joint. It can move the bones in all directions - flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, medial and external rotation. The weight of the body and the wear and tear over years of multi-directional use can easily lead to bone damage, inflammation, degeneration and joint pain. 

Patients with hip pain usually have difficulty walking, worse after sitting for a period of time and worse once they get moving again. The pain often radiates down the side or the back of the leg, and can present like sciatica. Internal and external rotation of the hip cause most pain. 

What conditions affect the hip?

Orthopedic conditions and musculoskeletal conditions are common in the hip area, usually caused by repetitive overuse, traumatic injury and/or degeneration.

There are also 2 key degenerative conditions that affect the joint, namely osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of hip arthritis. This degenerative arthritis happens when joints are overused due to frequent repetitive movement. Mild osteoarthritis is a very common hip joint disease process, leading to inflammation, damaged tissue, tenderness, loss of flexibility and mobility. In the more severe cases, the articular cartilage, joint tissue and joint space deteriorate, and the bone on bone friction and connective tissue aggravation causes hip pain. Normal activity like walking and bending over to tie our shoes or put our socks on become a challenge. Hip osteoarthritis is one of the more serious of degenerative diseases, often leading to hip fractures and a drastic reduction in quality of life. Osteoarthritis treatment involves a systemic approach. 

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis may share similar symptoms but is very different from OA and other hip-related medical conditions. Because rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder, it is systemic. RA creates abnormal immune response. These reactions attack joints, causing inflammation and pain. 

RA symptoms start in small, outer joints like fingers and toes. However, soon move to larger, weight-bearing joints. The hips and ankles are primary weight-bearing joints. RA-related pain generally affects joints on both sides of the body. When both hip joints are affected, chronic hip pain and stiffness doubles.

Osteonecrosis

Hip osteonecrosis (avascular necrosis) is an advanced hip disease,  a painful condition that occurs due to lack of blood flow to the  head of the femur (thigh bone) is disrupted. The key factor for osteonecrosis is lack of blood supply. Because bone cells need a steady supply of blood to stay healthy, the damage in hip osteonecrosis can lead to insufficient bone repair, bone damage, bone defects, and overall destruction of the hip joint. More than 20,000 people each year in the US alone enter hospitals for treatment of avascular osteonecrosis. The damage in hip osteonecrosis is serious and often requires full hip replacement. 

Structural Hip Damage

All of the degenerative diseases above lead to hip joint destruction. The structural destabilization can lead to connective tissue injury such as a labrum tear, or to formation of extensive bone spurs. Labral tear and spurs can cause active pain and be a key element in the chronic hip pain picture. 

What are the current treatment options for hip pain?

Hip pain is a common complaint and medical issue. Traditional treatments for hip pain and medical treatment of hip disorders involves body mass reduction, oral pharmaceutical medication, analgesic or anti-inflammatory gel for pain relief, physical therapy, steroid injections, and more invasive procedure options like hip replacement surgery. Recovery time in joint replacement can be long, pain levels high, and everyday activity affected for a while. But once recovered, pain scores and life for patients improve dramatically. 

Potential for repair and quality of care widens with integrative therapy for pain relief. There are many type of treatment modalities used alongside traditional treatments for hips. Many pain specialists and orthopedic doctors use intra-articular injections as key treatment for hips. They may employ hyaluronic acid injections. Although there may be many types of hyaluronic acid injections used, all work as lubrication and shock absorption to the hip joint. 

Regenerative medicine doctors may employ platelet rich plasma and/or stem cell treatment as treatment for hips. Both options serve as effective rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis treatment. Treatment of osteoarthritis with platelet enriched plasma is a standard intra-articular injections procedure in many clinics. Other doctors are more provider of stem cell therapeutics.

How can stem cells help with hip pain?

There are many cell types used in hip stem cell injection therapeutics — adult stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, cells from bone marrow (bone marrow stem cell therapeutics: native bone marrow autologous bone marrow stem cells, single bone marrow concentrate, bone marrow concentrate injection therapies) and so on.

Whether the stem cell procedure is a single injection treatment or a program using daily pulsing doses depends on the types of stem cells and the clinic. Pluripotent embryonic stem cells (standard and autologous stem cells), for instance, work best in extended daily programs using intra-venous and intra-articular injections. 

Stem cells have osteogenic potential, they can improve bone growth, bone remodeling, regrowth of bone lost to degeneration, and often provide effective hip cartilage repair. Stem cells release growth factors that can repair joint tissue, reprogram bone cells and improve blood vessel formation, which especially important to prevent damage in hip osteonecrosis. 

How fast does hip pain resolve with stem cell therapy?

The healing process is different for every patient. Some patients may experience rapid improvement with a short 1-2 day recovery. Short-term outcomes are desirable, but in reality stem cell medicine has success rates that are much longer acting, with extended periods ranging from 1-6 months (time period, patient reported outcomes, 30-day period, 42-day period, 49-day period, 54-day period, 146-day period). Subjective pain is a factor. In general, mild pain improves faster and severe chronic hip pain takes more time. Active lifestyle and healing environment post stem cells treatment is also an important factor. 

What are some future directions for stem cells and hip pain?

We are at a crossroads in medicine when it comes to repair, regeneration, and joint tissue and bone remodeling. In many parts of the world, stem cell therapy is considered an experimental treatment, but clinical medicine insights and clinical outcomes are providing confidence that stem cells therapeutics is here to stay and evolve towards tissue engineering. 

What kind of stem cell treatment for hip pain can I expect at Stemaid institute?

Stemaid Institute uses pluripotent embryonic stem cells in daily intra-venous regenerative medicine regimens. We are a provider of stem cell therapeutics that focuses in whole body repair. Pluripotent stem cells signal repair in all 220+ tissue types of the body. All of the organs and systems of your body receive this information and repair/reprogram your cells and tissues back to a healthier state. For this reason, this stem cell treatment is a good match for systemic conditions like osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, where not only the hip joint needs repair, but also the immune system and other organ systems. 

Some patients opt to have their own autologous stem cells prepared. Our procedure is different from other provider of (autologous stem cells) stem cells therapy. We do not prepare adult stem cells (mesenchymal stem cells). Our scientists focus in a special cloning biotechnology technique that fully reprograms your own skin cells (fibroblasts) back to the embryonic stem cells stage. We prepare embryonic stem cells with your own DNA. This is very unique, and allows you to have the youngest stem cell possible for your stem cell treatment, with your own DNA. 

At Stemaid Institute, we see patients with all kinds of joint pain, including chronic hip pain. We also support patients as they recover from hip replacement surgery. Our programs involve daily Intravenous Injections of therapeutic peptides, nutraceuticals, ozone, along with daily stem cell stem cell injections. Our hip stem cell injections focus on soft tissue support and are designed to be a part of the overall systemic approach to chronic hip pain.