Some people suffer from foot or ankle pain due to lifetime wear and tear from injuries. This can trigger degenerative joint disease or osteoarthritis, which can badly affect toe joints and toes. Small feet joints take time to recover, but giving them time to rest is impossible. People depend on their feet to do their routine tasks, which is painful. Luckily, advancement in regenerative medicine will help to relieve the pain without surgery – stem cell therapy.
In Irvine, people consult Dr. Sima for their foot and ankle issues. If physical therapy and medications don’t help, she suggests non-invasive stem cell therapy for foot and ankle treatment.
Sprains are common sports injuries caused due to twisting or rotating of the foot and ankle either outwards or inwards. Mild sprains are resolved with ice and a few days of rest but severe ones need months of rest, anti-inflammatory medication, and physical therapy. Sometimes, severe pain lingers. Stem cell therapy can help in every kind of sprain. It decreases inflammation and speeds up the healing of foot and ankle damage.
Stem cell therapy procedure
Before performing stem cell therapy for foot injuries, the podiatrist will review your medical history and conduct a medical checkup using ultrasound and advanced imagery to locate the damaged portions in the foot or ankle. The next step will be to create a complete treatment plan suitable to the patient’s specific needs.
Stem cells along with platelet-rich plasma will be extracted from the patient’s bone marrow. Bone marrow holds a rich reservoir of MSCs or Mesenchymal stem cells. These capably divide into crucial cells including skin, cartilage, connective tissue, and bone. The stem cells from the bone marrow are separated and processed before use.
The patient goes under local anesthesia before the patient’s live stem cells along with platelet-rich plasma are injected into the specific damaged area. During stem cell therapy for ankle or foot injuries, platelet-rich plasma concentration from the patient’s blood is used as an aide to bone marrow cells. The stem cells are activated by the platelets and the injuries to the damaged joint or tissue or muscle progress towards fast healing.
The therapy takes not more than 30 minutes. Improvements will not be seen instantly but can be experienced after 3 to 6 months. Pain relief will be seen sooner but it will take a maximum of six months to repair the injured ligaments, tissue, bone, or tendons.
What foot and ankle pain gets treated with stem cell therapy?
Stem cell therapy offers relief in ankle and foot pains caused due to –
- Ankle & foot sprains
- Plantar fasciitis
- Bone degeneration
- Achilles tendon injuries
- Osteoarthritis
- Sub-talar degeneration
- Degenerative joint disease
- Tibiotalar arthritis
- Tibiofibular arthritis & tendinosis
Researchers support stem cell therapy because it has the potential to treat multiple conditions without side effects or rejection risks. Besides, it is non-invasive. It is a procedure that stimulates the natural healing process of the human body.
A regenerative treatment may be doable solution of your chronic foot and ankle pain. Consult a podiatrist!