Orthopedics

Can the Fox Guard the Henhouse? Why Putting Surgeons In Charge of Reducing Surgical Rates is a Bad Idea

My mother loved her homespun idioms. One of those was that you could never put the fox in charge of the henhouse. This week a Regenexx corporate salesperson was trying to explain to a corporate client why putting a famous orthopedic clinic in charge of using interventional orthobiologics to reduce surgeries was a bad idea.…read more

Do Orthopedic Stem Cell Treatments Really Have High Complication Rates?

Part of my job is looking at what’s being published in the world of orthopedic autologous cell therapies. Most of the time there is a steady flow of research supporting the safety and efficacy of various types of therapies and some research that doesn’t support this or that clinical application. However, every once in a…read more

A 12-Year Compilation of Before and After Orthopedic Stem Cell MRIs

Patients want to see results. In some instances, when stem cells are used to treat orthopedic problems, if the procedures are done correctly, you can show patients amazing changes on an MRI taken after the procedure. In other circumstances, little changes are seen. Given that we were the first clinic on earth to do many…read more

Fusion Surgery No Better than No Surgery

Does fusion surgery work? I have blogged before about the research showing that this surgery is often no better in the long-run than no surgery. However, I’ve also pointed out that surgeons have a way of interpreting data in studies that benefit their preconceived notions of efficacy. Today’s blog is about one such study which…read more

Outcomes, Complication Rates, and Stem Cell Procedures

Given the quite reasonable concerns this past week over the blinding of three women by a stem cell clinic injecting fat stem cells into eyes, I thought it was time to take a look at stem-cell-procedure complications. All medical procedures have complications. So what bar can we use to see if those complications are reasonable, and…read more

The Top 8 Things to Know About Orthopedic Stem Cell Treatment

You’re considering orthopedic stem cell treatment, but how do you know which clinic and doctor is the right choice? Today, I’m going to share the top 8 things to know to make sure you get a quality stem cell procedure and maximize your chances of a successful outcome. If your clinic and doctor meets all 8,…read more

Stem Cell Disc Injection: The Hammer and the Nail

There’s a saying in medicine, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. Meaning that if all the doctor knows how to do for a given problem is one treatment, then he or she tends to use that treatment when it’s not appropriate. This morning I’d like to highlight a stem…read more

Are Bone Spurs Bad? Bone Is Alllllliiiiivvvveeee…

Are bone spurs bad? Bone spurs inspire fear in the hearts and minds of most patients, kind of like The Blob from a bad ’60s horror movie. When they hear that they have them, they’re immediately freaked out. However, much like the title of Stanley Kubrick’s ’60s movie, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to…read more