Knee Arthroscopy: Can 1 Million A Year Be Right?
In the dawn of the age of Regenerative Medicine and stem cell therapy, can 1 million knee arthroscopies a year be avoided?
The statistics reveal a 20-25% failure rate initially for arthroscopy. That is after recovery. Long term studies since the 1940’s have shown the long term arthritis associated with knee surgery – including knee arthroscopy.
After lateral meniscectomy, it may occur in as little as a few months. The desire to regenerate meniscus tissue or halt degeneration is a much sought after result. Clinical research has looked into using stem cells after knee surgery. These studies were using other people’s stem cells. A fault of the early research was not realizing the potential early on of using stem cells instead of surgery.
This early notion has taken years of time and not shifted the direction towards what was known in the 1940’s that knee surgery led to arthritis development. Given this old information, why has knee surgery continued to rise to over a million knee arthroscopies a year? Treatment should be focused on symptoms today and symptoms that will occur in the future.
Regenerative Medicine focuses on repair and restoration. Prevention of arthritis is an important goal. Utilization of stem cells and regenerative therapies for knee pain and alternatives to knee arthroscopy, and any surgery for that matter, are important strides to head what has been known for so long about knee surgery.
Dennis M. Lox, MD, serves patients in the greater Tampa Bay area, including, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Tampa, New Port Richey, Sarasota, Orlando and Spring Hill. He has been pleased to accommodate the needs of patients throughout Florida, the United States, the Western Hemisphere, and Europe, as well. Located in the 33765 area, our office can be reached at (727) 462-5582.