Use stem cells for patellar tendinopathy or a bad patellar tendon? A recently published study out of the Hospital for Special Surgery suggests they can. What’s also remarkable is that the paper is a 5 year follow-up on 8 patients who were treated with stem cells for high grade patellar tendinopathy (a.k.a patellar tendinitis). These were grade 3, the most severe type, just short of a rupture needing surgery and the patients were younger (average age of 24). Patellar tendinopathy is also called “Jumpers Knee” and is seen in both jumping and kicking athletes. All patients had ultrasound guided injections of same day bone marrow stem cells into the areas that looked problematic on ultrasound. The result? 7/8 reported excellent results and almost all had significant improvements on pre and post ultrasound imaging. These results are consistent with our clinical experience of using stem cells to treat high grade tendon lesions. It’s also good to see another group publishing in this area and hopefully we’ll see more papers out of HSS on same day stem cells used to treat various musculoskeletal problems!
