Dr. Ajeya Joshi, a physician certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, has teamed up with two colleagues to expand the benefits of stem-cell therapy treatments, reaching into the field of orthopedic injuries.
Dr. Joshi offers alternative treatment solutions to patients who don’t want to get their joints or tendons rebuilt through surgery. According to the physicians working at The Stem Cell Orthopedic Institute of Texas, Dr. Joshi’s team is among the few ones in San Antonio that endeavors to perform such procedures on outpatients.
Besides the benefits of not having to go under the knife for this treatment, Joshi, Dr. John Hall and Dr. David Hirsch work from their office, which in turn, makes the treatment less expensive and more accessible for patients in comparison with having the procedures done in a hospital or a surgical center.
Even though The Stem Cell Orthopedic Institute of Texas is only a few weeks old, the team of doctors have been providing their services with stem-cell therapy for more than one and a half years.
Dr. Joshi said that using stem cells is becoming more widely renowned in orthopedics, with physicians using the patient’s own bone-marrow stem cells to remodel collagen, cartilage, tendon and even bone. The procedure can also be used to significantly lower pains and inflammation.
Even though treatment is not as expensive as those offered by surgical centers, a single therapy session is still in the numbers of thousands of dollars, since health insurance has yet to cover for them.
But booking a treatment appointment with Joshi, Hirsch and Hall’s office will help you save from $1,500 to $2,000. Their practice does not use the controversial embryonic stem cells for ethical reasons. According to Joshi, it’s a simple extraction of stem cells from the patient’s body, minimally altering them, and returning them back into the body.
The stem-cell therapy might prove an attractive option for patients who are not viable for total hip or knee replacements due to various reasons – being too young or too old can decrease your chances of being able to undergo surgery. Even among the patients who are deemed medically stable, there are some who prefer the alternative.
The disruptive and invasive character of surgery is often a turn off, and the fact that it can lead to complications does not help. Stem cells, on the other hand, have a lot of benefits with minimum side effects.
Physicians, however, are careful not to raise people’s hopes up in cases of severe worn down joints, because stem cells won’t “magically” create a healthy cartilage.
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