A Tennis Player With Bad Knees Improves with Regenerative Therapy
A tennis player with bad knees has a difficult time staying in the game. The professional tennis fan needed only look at world number one ranked Rafael Nadal to understand chronic knee pain in tennis.
Dr. Lox has treated many tennis players with Regenerative therapy. This particular tennis player had two knee surgeries both by prominent Sports Medicine orthopedic surgeons.
Yet she failed to improve.
Her father knew of Dr. Lox and his reputation with athletes and tennis players with bad knees, and treatment with Regenerative therapy.
She was unable to play tennis any longer, so she figured she had nothing to lose. Much to her delighted surprise 6 months after Regenerative therapy on her knee with Dr. Lox, she was back to playing competitive tennis.
There is never a guarantee with all patients. Dr. Lox stresses that the importance of individual assessment of each patient. No two patients are alike, and their unique history, physical examination, goals and desires are important to assess. That is why having a skilled Regenerative Medicine specialist who understands not just athletes, and sports medicine, but their unique goals is so very important.
Sports & Regenerative Medicine
Regenerative Medicine is a rapidly expanded field incorporating aspects of nearly every specialty. Though most are in the research stages such for Spinal Cord injury. There are several clinical trials underway worldwide with Regenerative technology to help spinal cord injured patients.
Regenerative Medicine has had an early role in Orthopedics, Sports Medicine, Rheumatolgy, and Plastic Surgery. Thus there roles in these field are further advance into treating patients. That’s the good news for athletes, especially for the tennis player with bad knees.
There are now alternative treatments to surgery, and Regenerative Medicine treatments even after failed knee surgery that can help some patients return to their chosen sport.
Nothing is more gratifying to an injured athlete than to return to sport.
Rafael Nadal took 7 months off the men’s professional Tennis tour to have Regenerative therapy for his knee. Rafael Nadal has long stated he used Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) knee injections between tennis tournaments to help repair, and get ready for the next tournament with his grueling style of play. Platelet Rich Plasma or PRP is basically concentrated platelets taken from the patients own blood then re-injected into the desired area. In Nadal’s case his hurting knees. PRP has growth factors which can assist in the repair process, especially after long tournaments. PRP also exerts an anti-inflammatory effect via the growth factors released from the concentrated blood platelets. This may aid in knee pain and swelling, allowing sooner return to play.
However, when the knee is more significantly problematic such as with a meniscal tear, or early knee joint degeneration from the rigors of years of knee abuse, PRP is often not enough. In this scenario with damaged cartilage or meniscal debridement from knee surgery, Regenerative Medicine needs a more elaborate aid.
Stem cells are master regulators of the inflammatory cascade, and can regenerate new cartilage. This is what Rafael Nadal admitted to in 2012 when he took 7 months off the tennis tour. It just so happens Dr. Lox lectures with some of the leading Sports and Regenerative Medicine specialists in the world, including Rafael Nadal’s doctor.
In 2013 Rafael Nadal returned to professional Men’s Tennis reclaiming the world number one ranking he currently holds now. Dr. Lox knows how long elite athletes need to repair with Regenerative Medicine therapies, having treated professional athletes in a variety of sports. It is critical to treat the athlete properly to get maximal regenerative capacity, and return to top form in the athletes sport.
Regenerative Medicine is here to stay, and the future looks very promising for many areas of medicine to possibly help the body heal itself when it previously could not.
