Patient Outcomes

Hip Labrum Surgery Complications: Making the Hip Unstable…

This week while practicing down in Grand Cayman I evaluated a professional ballerina from Germany who regrettably is having issues with recovery due to hip labrum surgery complications. In her case, she was diagnosed with CAM and pincer impingement and since having these bone spurs removed has never been able to get back to high level…read more

Surgery for Big Rotator Cuff Tears Has High Retear Rates…

Rotator Cuff tears can be tricky. I think to best understand them, you need to ask your self why they happen in the first place. While some result from trauma, the vast majority of rotator cuff tears happen from simple wear and tear as we age.  Why would the most important group of muscles in the shoulder…read more

Wear Debris in Joint Replacement and Genetic Problems

Wear debris is a big issue in knee and hip replacement as we now have many studies that show that many types of prostheses produce these small particles. However, if you’ve already had a joint replacement or are considering one, a new study should be very concerning. It found that this wear debris can cause…read more

Making a Hamstring Surgery Decision? Meet Abby…

Abby is a middle aged woman who is very active in high level yoga and was recently faced with a difficult hamstring surgery decision. She came to see me last year with a hamstrings tear where one surgeon had told her to operate and a second had said to try PRP. She’s now about 95%…read more

Did the Mesoblast Degenerative Disc Disease Trial Succeed or Fail?

This past week Mesoblast, a company pursuing the business model of selling someone else’s mass produced stem cells in a vial, launched a major PR campaign to announce their phase III FDA disc degeneration trial. From reading the press releases, you would think that the phase 2 trial showed pure magic. I had reviewed the results…read more

Back Fusion Outcome: Fusion Leads to Dead Multifidus

Decisions in Medicine like most things are based on risk vs. benefit.  There are life saving procedures and surgeries where the answer is clear, but in non emergency situations, are we doing greater good than harm?  A new study looks at the potential damage done to the multifidus in the common surgery, back fusion. So what is…read more

Hip Labrum Surgery Results: Can Injections Replace Surgery?

Can you get hip labrum surgery results without the surgery? We’ve been using precise platelet rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell injections for hip labral tears for many years with promising outcomes. This data has been reported as part of the larger research paper we recently published on hip arthritis. However, having other doctors validating the…read more

SI Joint Fusion Problems vs. Stem Cell Injections

Many patients who have intractable SI joint pain who opt for surgery eventually experience SI Joint Fusion problems. As an alternative to this invasive surgery, do stem cell injections work for chronic SI joint problems? One of the advantages of 10 years of stem cell use for orthopedic injuries is that I have patients who…read more