Previously, patients that failed to gain relief from conservative treatment were forced to either undergo surgery or continue living with pain. Fortunately, cell-based therapies like bone marrow aspiration concentrate are now available and can heal a wide variety of conditions without surgery and without a long recovery period.
Keep reading to learn more about bone marrow aspiration concentrate’s many uses in sports medicine and beyond, and how the Center for Sports Medicine and Wellness can help you!
What is Bone Marrow Concentrate?
Bone marrow is a soft and spongy substance that is found in the inner portion of bones and it’s where your blood is produced. The bone marrow also has tiny spaces within it where cells that can grow into many different types of blood cells are contained. In some cases, these cells can even generate new tissue, such as bone, cartilage, fat, and blood vessels. This makes bone marrow highly useful in treating and healing injuries.
Bone marrow concentrate (BMC), or bone marrow aspiration concentrate (BMAC), is a fluid taken from the bone marrow that contains these cells and can be injected into injured areas of the body that need help healing.
How is BMAC Collected?
BMAC is made by collecting bone marrow aspirate from a patient using a minimally invasive method.
A needle is typically used to remove the bone marrow aspirate from a large bone, such as the pelvic bone. This is typically done using local anesthesia, sedation, or general anesthesia. After it’s been collected, the aspirate is then processed using a centrifuge.
How Bone Marrow Aspiration Concentrate Heals
Stem cells and progenitor cells, in combination with bone marrow cells and platelets, can be used to heal tissue when injected into damaged areas of the body. In addition to this, BMAC contains proteins called cytokines and growth factors, which may also be able to help heal damaged tissue. This is believed possibly be because BMAC decreases inflammation and potentially aids in new tissue formation.
Using BMAC to Treat Sports Injuries and Other Conditions
So what kind of conditions and injuries can bone marrow aspiration concentrate be used to treat? Because of its ability to stimulate the growth of new tissues, BMAC is a versatile treatment that can be used to treat a wide range of conditions, including injuries involving soft tissues like tendons, ligaments, and muscles. Below we’ll discuss how our practice uses BMAC in more detail.
Repairing cartilage
There are a variety of conditions that involve damaged cartilage, but in our practice, some of the most common conditions we come across are meniscus tears and osteochondritis dissecans of the knee. Both of these conditions typically develop as a result of repetitive stress on the knee joint. Many different causes can lead to this repetitive stress, but the most common reason for it is playing a sport, especially when these conditions develop in children.
Typically, if conservative treatment isn’t effective, surgical intervention is considered the only option that can provide relief. However, bone marrow aspiration concentrate is an effective and non-surgical option that can provide relief from pain caused by damaged cartilage.
Improving tendon healing
Conditions like tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis), rotator cuff tendinitis, Achilles tendinitis, patellar tendinitis, and posterior tibial tendon dysfunction involve tendon injuries. These are all conditions that our practice typically treats related to tendon injury and damage. There are a variety of causes for these conditions, but BMAC can be an effective treatment for all of these conditions. Using its ability to stimulate the growth of new tissues, it can help heal damaged tendons without surgery.
Treating osteoarthritis in joints
Studies have shown that bone marrow aspiration concentrate has been able to successfully provide patients with relief from osteoarthritis. A review conducted to determine the efficacy of BMAC for the treatment of osteoarthritis in the knee found that 94.4% of patients showed improvement when compared to the patients’ baseline. The conclusion of this review is that BMAC is an effective treatment for improving pain in patients struggling with osteoarthritis of the knee.
Other uses for BMC
Bone marrow aspiration concentrate can also be used to delay the progression of diseases like arthritis and to repair ligament injuries such as medial ulnar collateral ligament injury. There is a multitude of other conditions and injuries that BMAC can be used to effectively treat that have not been listed here.
Learn More About Bone Marrow Aspiration Concentrate Treatment in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania
Our team at the Center for Sports Medicine and Wellness is proud to be experts in the most advanced minimally invasive and non-surgical treatments for our patients. This is why we offer treatments like bone marrow aspiration concentrate and other cell-based therapies. We understand that our patients’ top priority is to successfully recover from their conditions while getting back to their lives or their sports as quickly as possible. We’re proud to provide the most advanced and least invasive treatment options.
If you’d like to learn more about our services or contact us to schedule a consultation, please call our office in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, at (610) 459-4200 or fill out our form. We welcome your inquiry and we look forward to helping you get back to the game of life!