Sometimes the most painful part of a sports injury is the amount of time you spend sitting on the sidelines recovering. But it doesn’t have to be. At Genesis Regenerative Sports and Aesthetic Medicine in Westfield, New Jersey, our experienced team relies on state-of-the-art equipment and treatments, like regenerative medicine, to speed up the recovery process so that you can get back in the game faster.
Regenerative medicine therapies focus on activating the natural healing process in your body to repair tissue damage. Keep reading to learn how treatments like TenJet®, PRP, BMAC, Lipogems® can help support the healing process when you have a sports injury.
TenJet
This minimally invasive technique involves removing damaged tissue within your joints to treat chronic tendon pain.
Your tendons connect a bone to a muscle, which helps you move. When you develop tendonitis, you experience temporary inflammation of a tendon that often goes away with rest. If inflammation doesn’t go away, however, you can develop tendinosis, and your tendon can start to deteriorate.
TenJet treats chronic tendon pain with a thin, needlelike applicator. During your appointment, we use ultrasound technology to identify the diseased tissue causing your discomfort. Then, we insert the TenJet device into the site and release saline solution to remove the damaged tissue. This not only relieves pain, but it can also restore function in your joint.
We can use TenJet to treat tendinosis all over your body, including your:
- Shoulders and elbows
- Knees, hips, and ankles
- Bottoms of your feet
This treatment typically takes about 15 minutes and requires a local anesthetic to numb the site. You may have minor tenderness in the area after your procedure, but this fades quickly. Within three months, you should no longer have tendon pain and should also notice increased joint movement. Sometimes, we recommend having TenJet treatment in combination with PRP.
PRP
PRP, or platelet-rich plasma therapy, is a regenerative therapy treatment using vital growth factors found in your blood.
Your blood contains special proteins known as growth factors involved with tissue regeneration and cell division. It also has important proteins, nutrients, and antibodies. When concentrated to create PRP, these important substances can help activate the healing process in your body. As a result, new and healthy tissue returns to the area, inflammation decreases, and you experience less pain and better joint movement.
This treatment is especially effective for:
- Joint and cartilage damage
- Torn shoulder muscles
- Tendon injuries
- Knee joint inflammation
We also use PRP as an aesthetic treatment to promote new collagen production and reduce the signs of aging.
This therapy is relatively painless, though it does include blood draws and injections with needles. You can usually resume regular activity immediately and should see improvements within a few weeks or months after your appointment.
BMAC
Bone marrow aspirate stem cell concentrate, or BMAC, uses growth factors and anti-inflammatory proteins found in your bone marrow to support the healing process in bone and soft tissue.
You have stem cells in tissue throughout your body, but one of the best sources is your bone marrow. To harvest a bone marrow sample, we use a small needle to puncture your bone, often in your pelvis. After obtaining your sample, we concentrate the stem cells in a special processing unit before injecting them into your treatment site.
This regenerative medicine treatment can help reduce pain associated with:
- Tendonitis
- Sports injuries, including elbow injuries
- Osteoarthritis
- Rotator cuff tears
- Cartilage injuries
- Advanced and high-grade tendon injuries
It’s common to experience tenderness at the bone marrow harvest site for several days. In many cases, you can expect to see improvement within one to two months after your treatment, including increased stability and strength.
Lipogems
The Lipogem system focuses on using your adipose stem cells — or fat — to reconstruct, repair, or replace damaged tissue in your body.
For this treatment, we obtain some fat cells from your thigh or abdomen to prepare your injection. After harvesting these cells, we cleanse them to ensure the highest quality mesenchymal stem cells remain present. These important cells support tissue repair and replacement.
To treat your injury, we inject your Lipogem sample into your injury site. We recommend this treatment for a wide range of issues, from painful joints with reduced range of motion to soft tissue damage impacting tendons, ligaments, or muscles.
When you have Lipogem treatment, we administer a local anesthetic to keep you comfortable, and you often see improvements in as early as three weeks.
To see how regenerative medicine treatments can help your sports injury heal faster, schedule an appointment by calling 908-588-2311 or booking online today.
