One of the more common sports injuries athletes of all levels encounter is torn ligaments. From football players suffering torn ACLs in their knees to the well-known Tommy John surgery, which many pitchers undergo to repair their UCL in their elbows, ligament injuries can affect your athletic activities. However, stem cell therapy has the potential to speed up healing.
What Are Stem Cells?
Stem cells are special cells in your body that can transform into several different tissues, including bone, muscle, and of course, ligaments. For sports injury treatment, doctors may use mesenchymal stem cells derived from one of the following tissues depending on the patient’s specific case:
- Bone marrow
- Adipose (fat)
- Umbilical cord
How Doctors Use Stem Cells
The actual process of stem cell therapy depends on the nature of your injury and how your provider prefers to proceed.
If your ligament requires surgical repair, your surgeon may apply stem cells directly to the site of the injury. That allows the cells to get to work immediately at the targeted site without the additional pain and the risks of surgery and anesthesia.
Some have used another direct application method where surgeons use specialized material and sew the torn ligaments together to apply the stem-cell bearing sutures. Over time, the suture dissolves inside the body, leaving only the stem cells absorbed into the body to divide as ligament cells.
How Stem Cells Can Help Torn Ligaments Heal
These special human cells have significant potential for helping heal musculoskeletal injuries. When introduced to areas with torn ligaments, they can transform into ligament tissue, providing the raw ingredients for rebuilding the damaged tissue.
Stem cell therapy has the potential to speed up healing by assisting the body through the healing process. It can also help reduce inflammation in the area, as well as prevent future inflammation from occurring.
If you’ve suffered a torn ligament, it may be worth exploring your options with stem cell therapy and how it may benefit you, and your potential for improvement in symptoms.
This post was written by a medical professional at Stemedix Inc. At Stemedix we provide access to Regenerative Medicine for knees, also known as stem cell treatment for knees florida! Regenerative medicine has the natural potential to help improve symptoms sometimes lost from the progression of many conditions.