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February 03, 2021 | Regenerative Medicine, Regenerative Treatments
Get In TouchIt’s easy to get tendons and ligaments confused because they perform similar functions, but understanding their differences is key.
Tendons are connective tissues that attach muscle to bone. They help you move your bones as you walk, run, jump, etc.
Ligaments, on the other hand, connect bone to bone, and they play a crucial role in keeping your bones and joints in place. Ligaments contain a large amount of collagen and elastin, which makes them strong connective tissues. Though they’re extremely strong, they’re unfortunately at extreme risk for injuries like tears and sprains, and other disorders.
There are many conditions that can impact your ligaments and other connective tissues. However, arthritis and injuries are often the culprits behind your ligament disorder.
Arthritis is a degenerative condition that attacks your bones and joints as well as the connective tissues surrounding them. This disease causes significant inflammation, which damages your ligaments, resulting in significant pain and loss of function.
There are many different kinds of arthritis that can impact your ligaments, but rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and osteoarthritis are the most common.
If you live with any type of arthritis, talk to Dr. Neel Amin about your symptoms. He can recommend a treatment plan that will help you find lasting relief from arthritis pain.
If you’re an athlete or follow professional athletes, chances are you’ve heard about ACL tears. This injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in your knee is one of the most common ligament injuries.
You can sustain a ligament injury virtually anywhere in your body, including, the ligaments in your ankles, wrists, back, neck, and fingers.
Ligament injuries occur when you experience an extreme force to your joint like a fall, sudden change of direction, or direct impact. Your joint will likely swell rapidly, be painful or tender, and lose stability.
Ligaments injuries fall into one of three categories: grade 1, grade 2, or grade 3. Grade 1 injuries are minor sprains, grade 2 are more severe sprains that include partial tears, and grade 3 are severe sprains with complete tears.
No matter what’s behind your ligament disorder, Dr. Neel Amin has the treatment solution for you. He meets with you to evaluate your symptoms and discuss your health history. From there, he creates your custom treatment plan. Depending on your needs he can recommend a variety of treatments, including regenerative medicine.
When your body senses injury or damage, it relies on growth and healing factors like platelets and stem cells to recover. In fact, your body’s natural healing response is one the most effective on the planet. That’s why we harness the power of the body’s own ability to heal itself with regenerative medicine.
Here are two methods of regenerative methods we use most often.
Stem cells are neutral cells that can transform into virtually any other type of cell, including connective tissue cells. Mesenchymal stem cells are especially effective because we harvest them from the umbilical cords of healthy babies who have been delivered full-term by healthy mothers.
After the cells have been donated and extracted, they go to a lab where they’re processed and prepared to be used as treatment. Dr. Neel Amin then injects them into your painful ligaments where they immediately get to work rebuilding your damaged tissue.
As your ligaments regenerate over time, you will feel significantly less pain, improved function, and much faster healing.
Another common and increasingly popular type of regenerative medicine is PPR injections. This treatment involves taking a sample of your own blood and extracting the platelets and plasma. We do this by placing your sample in a machine called a centrifuge, which spins your blood quickly and separates out the healing factors.
Dr. Neel Amin takes the solution of platelets and injects them into your body. They then stimulate and expedite your body’s healing process, helping to reduce inflammation, restore function, and relieve pain.
If you’d like more information about regenerative medicine and your ligament disorder, request an appointment at our Oakland Park, Florida office over the phone or online.