Home › Blog › Rotator Cuff Tear Surgery Alternative: Precise Stem Cell Injections

Are precise stem cell injections a rotator cuff tear surgery alternative? This is the 2013 sub-analysis of data from our advanced treatment registry on patients with rotator cuff and labral tears treated with a very precise stem cell placement into their tears. A few things to note. First, these patients almost all had either a partial, complete, or complete retracted tear of their rotator cuff. Some also had tears in their labrum (the lip around the shoulder socket) and a few just had labral tears without any pathology in their rotator cuff. As is common, some also had arthritis in their AC joint (the place where the collar bone and front of the shoulder blade meet). However, this data set specifically excludes patients with primary large joint arthritis (main shoulder joint or GH). For that information, see the earlier analysis of all treated shoulder patients (about half of which had main shoulder joint arthritis).

The upshot? These results were quite good. In particular, the percentage of patients reporting high levels of improvement were very high. This is consistent with the fact that we also see imaging evidence consistent with healing of these tears. This is why we’ve launched and are now actively recruiting for a randomized controlled trial where we’re more formally studying the effects of precise stem cell injections in rotator cuff tear patients. As always, either click here or on the image above to see the bigger PDF. In addition, as always, there is nobody else who spends the time, energy, and resources needed to back up their specific protocols with data.

Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile