Regenerative Medicine

Abstract

Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that affects millions of people world-wide, leading to physical incapacitation and financial strain. Common methods for treatment include physical therapy, oral medications, injections, surgery, and neuromodulation. Injectates with steroids and local anesthetics can be a temporizing measure with intolerable side effects. The use of autologous biologic injectates (e.g., platelet rich plasma, bone marrow aspirate concentrate, tissue grafts, and stem cells) is growing in therapeutic potential and enthusiasm, giving hope to a subset of patients that have either failed conventional therapy or are not candidates for traditional steroid injections. In this chapter, we will describe different cases in which regenerative medicine can help in painful conditions as well as neuro-degenerative conditions. Regenerative medicine can be the new frontier in providing long lasting relief through changes in cell-signaling cascades, however further trials are needed to validate their use.