Over 65% of women and 55% of men over the age of 55 will have arthritis in at least one joint in their hands.
Arthritis is the loss of joint cartilage that leads to "bone wearing on bone" and causes pain, swelling, stiffness and weakness.
For the past 75 years, the only treatments for hand arthritis have been splinting, anti-inflammatories (including cortisone injections) and surgery. None of these therapies actually help the joint to heal, they only reduce the pain we experience.
Thankfully, there is a new therapy available that not only reduces pain, but actually helps the joint cartilage to repair itself - mesenchymal stem cell joint injections.
This procedure starts with fat grafting (something surgeons have been doing for the last 30 years) where a patient's own fat is harvested with delicate instruments using local anesthesia — typically from the abdomen. The fat is then washed and spun in a centrifuge to leave only pure fat cells — as it turns out, up to 20% of these have the ability to stimulate cartilage growth and have potent inflammatory properties (more potent than even cortisone). The stem cells are then injected into the damaged joint using x-ray guidance and local anesthesia.
The entire procedure takes about 45 minutes. Patients are typically splinted for a week. Patients begin to see pain relief at 2-4 weeks. The degree of pain relief is dramatic and long lasting. Over 85% of patients would recommend fat injections to a friend.
