26 May, 2018 - More international expert recognition for the work of St. Catherine's Specialty Hospital in Croatia.
In a just-published article in The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, Levy and colleagues from The Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, U.S., reviews the benefits of corticosteroid, viscosupplementation, platelet-rich plasma, and autologous mesenchymal stem cell injections for the treatment of patients with knee osteoarthritis (The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, Vol 34, No 5 (May), 2018: pp 1730-1743.)
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease characterized by articular cartilage deterioration. As a consequence of weight-bearing redistribution, specific transformations of cartilage occur, which are usually diagnosed and classified by radiography. This disease is hugely important as it is one of the leading causes of disability in the modern world. For a long time treatment of OA was mainly based on pain management, with total endoprosthesis implantation in the more severe cases.
Finally, Levy specifically focused on OA treatment with autologous stem cells and he stated “Hudetz and St. Catherine’s team investigated the outcome of adipose-derived MSC injections both clinically and radiographically at 12 months postoperatively. Patients reported a significant decrease in VAS pain scores, and delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage showed a significant increase in articular cartilage glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content.”
