Biologics - The Future of Medicine? Via @chicagosportsdoc   💥Orthopedic conditions, whether caused by injury or degenerative disorders such as osteoarthritis and tendonitis, often linger and can be challenging to fully eradicate. To improve the healing process and alleviate pain, there’s a relatively new tool in the medical arsenal called biological injections that are available to help relieve pain and help patients back to regular life, potentially without surgery.   💉 These injections are minimally invasive and can be especially beneficial for chronic conditions like osteoarthritis. Other times, surgeons use these biological therapies to augment surgery (a combination of surgery and injections at the same time) hoping that this will accelerate the healing process.   ➖Biologic injections use concentrated quantities of natural constituents of our body to treat inflammation and ultimately help with healing in some cases.   ➖Steroid injections utilize cortisol, a hormone in the body that reduces inflammation for pain relief (among several other functions).   ➖A lubricant injection involves hyaluronic acid, one of the main molecules that form cartilage (the coating of the bone within the joint).   ➖Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an injection derived from people’s own blood that has been centrifuged (aka stirred like clothes in a washing machine spin cycle) to obtain platelets with proteins that can aid in healing.   ➖Stem cell treatments include a procedure known as bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC): a sample of bone marrow undergoes the same process as PRP to obtain not only important proteins for healing (also known as growth factors) but also a small amount of stem cells, which are intended to regenerate the affected diseased tissue. Note that it has not been proven to do so yet.   👏 Thanks to @shoulderkneedoc and @chicagosportsdoc for the video clips!
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