Spinal Fusions: Necessary Treatment?
Two decades ago lumbar spinal fusions were relatively rare. Most surgeries of the lumbar spine involved a decompressive laminectomy (removal of bone) without a fusion. But, over that time span, the rate of spinal fusions in the USA has increased at an alarming rate: a fifteen-fold increase between 2002 and 2007 alone. Now, almost half of all lumbar spine surgeries […]
Treating Multiple Sclerosis With Stem Cells
Encouraging, positive results of a clinical trial using a new stem cell therapy to treat Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are about to be presented next week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. This is a phase I clinical trial performed at the Tisch MS Research Center of New York. Phase I clinical trials are designed to determine […]
The Amniotic “Stem Cell Therapy” Scam – Part II
Another week…another sales rep coming to my office to market a new amniotic membrane/ fluid injection product. It seems these days that there is a new product coming to the market almost every month, and a new marketing gimmick associated with it. The old gimmick is marketing these treatments as “stem cell therapy” when is not. The newest gimmick […]
The Amniotic “Stem Cell Therapy” scam.
Amniotic derived products are proliferating like zombies in the regenerative medicine world. So, what are those amniotic injection products? Amniotic fluid is produced during pregnancy. This fluid is surrounded by a membrane that forms like a sack or balloon, covering the fetus. Just before birth, this sack breaks and the fluid comes out. This is what people refers as “the […]
To See or Not to See?
When I tell my orthopedic surgeon friends that I do all my intra-articular injections, including knee injections, under fluoroscopy (a form of x-rays) they like to give me a hard time. Their comments go along the lines of:” well, if you cannot find the knee (the largest joint in the body) without x-rays, you shouldn’t be injecting it.” But, in […]