FAQs | Sports Medicine Specialist, Orthopedic Surgeon & OrthoBiologics in Wilmington, NC

How are you treatments different than other “regenerative medicine” clinics?

Our treatments are based solely on our intellectual property and have evolved based on our prospectively collected patient outcomes analysis data and they work. We’re not just copying what everyone else does. The field of regenerative orthopedic surgery started with us right here in Wilmington in 2006, almost 15 years ago. We’re leading the way, not playing catch up. Over 900 clinics in the country now claim to do treatments based on our earlier procedures. While other clinics will sell unregulated off-the-shelf products with little or no value, we provide you with the highest quality of treatment. At the very least we can educate you on what’s real, what might be real and what’s not possible when it comes to the discipline of orthopedic immunobiologics. The only concentrated cell therapies available in the United States today, comes from bone marrow, no fat, not amnionic fluid, not umbilical cord products, nothing but marrow. These are known as orthopedic autologous bone marrow cells and are what we use in our clinic.

What cells are used in these procedures?

In order to perform our procedure we use your signaling cells that are harvested from your bone marrow during a virtually bloodless and painless procedure. From the signaling cells to the proprietary nanoplastic cellular product we deliver, everything is derived from you. We eliminate pro-inflammatory nanomolecules and replace them with anti-inflammatory and healing and growth factors that interact with the signaling cells that are delivered and in the native tissue. We use your own thrombin that we capture in a special procedure that other clinics just don’t do.

How do these cells regenerate the body?

Cells signal other cells in the region when there’s an issue that needs to be taken care of. Some cells come to help and then those cells call other cells to the area. Based on the signals they are receiving; the cells make proteins that are used for either rebuilding or more signaling. When there’s a big problem and a lot to heal, there’s a lot of complex signaling that goes on. Scientifically, we’re really figuring it out quickly and it’s all fascinating.

Why use our own cells and not something else?

The immune system oversees what goes on in the body and keeps us from harm and injury. It does that through cellular signaling called immunomodulation. Immune cells line the knee and are called monocytes. In fact, 15% of the cells lining the knee are this type of cell and respond with an inflammatory/healing cascade when activated by tiny parts of the cartilage matrix breaking apart. Whenever you introduce something to the body there is an immune reaction. Utilizing your own cells means that your body will not have a negative result from an overactive immune reaction.

Why does the joint break down and how can we fix it?

Whenever the joint breaks down from overload, small pieces of the matrix the cartilage cells are in will degrade. These small nanomolecules collect in the joint fluid and irritate the inflammatory cells. They know something’s gone wrong, so a healing response is generated. When this healing response called inflammation goes on too long, usually more than two years, is when the brain decides the joint has wasted enough energy in the futile process and the joint is destroyed in favor of fusion rather than regeneration.

This is a critically important concept to grasp. Inflammation IS healing! That’s a key concept because without inflammation, there is no healing. So, the healing response IS the inflammatory response. We just have to control it.