SPORTS INJURIES AT CELL SURGICAL NETWORK OF FLORIDA™
Tuesday August 19th, 2014
–Demand from Professional Athletes has Taken Stem Cell Treatment Out from the Shadows and Onto the Cutting Edge”
The above was a title of a July 30, 2014 article by Jenny Ventras exploring the increasing demand by professional athletes for stem cell therapies. The headline was around New York Jet’s running back Chris Johnson who has five 1000 yard NFL seasons to his name. During the third game of the 2013 season when with the Titans, he sustained a knee injury including a torn meniscus. He lost a lot of cartilage in his knee so he sought treatment at the Andrews Institute in Gulf Breeze, FL. where they injected a small amount of bone marrow stem cells into his knee. With bone marrow injections, only about 10,000 stem cells are injected along with PRP (platelet rich plasma). Offshore and abroad, doctors are allowed to culture and multiply these cells to about 2 million or more.
Johnson is one of hundreds of NFL players who have invested in the promise of stem cells in the past few years. Peyton Manning reportedly tried a European stem-cell treatment in 2011, his final year with the Colts. After two neck surgeries he sat out the 2011 season and the rest of the story is history.
Rather than an average of 10,000 stem cells present in a bone marrow tap, CSN of Florida can provide patients with 10 to 50 million stem cells from adult fat with a single treatment. The Andrews Institute of sports medicine, like most U.S. doctors, are limited to using small amounts of stem cells that may be harvested from bone marrow. Fat contains up to 2000 times more stem cells with a single harvesting procedure which may be injected at the same time. This type of treatment uses the adult stem cells we all have in our own bodies. These are unspecialized cells that have the ability to produce new cells, mature into a variety of different cell types and mobilize in response to an injury. Orthopedists have been particularly interested in mesenchymal stem cells (SVF) found in sources such as bone marrow and fat tissue. These cells may then become new bone, cartilage, muscle or connective tissueãthe cogs in the machines of athletes’ bodies. Below is an injection at our clinic.
The cost of one stem cell treatment is between $15,000 and $25,000 overseas. Athletes pining for a fix to the ailments threatening their careers are willing to pay that price since it is not covered by insurance. Cell Surgical Network of FL (based in Jacksonville) is located at the Obi Plastic Surgery Clinic www.obiplasticsurgery
