Orthobiologics

What are orthobiologics?

Orthobiologics are made from substances that naturally occur in your body. They promote healing of injured muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons when injected or surgically placed at the site of your injury. Some of the most common forms of orthobiologics include:

• Stem cell therapy
• Growth factors
• Autologous blood
• Autologous conditioned serum

This type of regenerative medicine can help your body repair itself, rather than needing artificial replacement or invasive surgical procedures.

What are Growth Factor Injections?

Growth factor injections utilize innovative orthobiologic treatments that comes from your blood. You’re probably familiar with platelets due to the role they play in forming blood clots. These tiny substances also contain hundreds of special proteins (growth factors) that help injuries heal. 

To obtain this treatment, Dr. Mulchandani draws a small vial of your blood. Then, they process it in a centrifuge to separate the platelets from other blood components. 

This method includes about 5-10 times the number of platelets, and therefore 5-10 times the amount of growth factors, as normal blood. When your City Orthopedics provider injects this orthobiologic into an injured area, the higher concentration of healing growth factors stimulates tissue repair. 

What do Orthobiologics or Growth Factor Injections treat?

The team at City Orthopedics uses orthobiologics and growth factor injections for many conditions, such as:

Chronic tendon injuries

A chronic tendon injury causes persistent pain that lasts for several weeks or months. Tennis elbow, Achilles tendonitis, and jumper’s knee are common examples of chronic tendon injuries. 

Acute ligament and muscle injuries 

Acute injuries occur suddenly and cause short-term pain. The team at City Orthopedics may use growth factor injections to treat acute injuries such as a pulled hamstring muscle or sprained ligament in your knee. 

Arthritis

Growth factor injections may be more effective for treating osteoarthritis of the knee than other types of injections, such as hyaluronic acid. 

Postsurgical repair

If your condition requires surgery, such as rotator cuff repair, growth factor injections can help speed up the recovery process. 

What should I expect from a growth factor injection?

First, your City Orthopedics provider carefully reviews your medical history and performs a physical exam to make sure you’re a good candidate for growth factor injections. 

Before the injection, your provider draws blood from your arm and then prepares the orthobiologics. This usually takes about 15 minutes. During the procedure, your provider may use imaging guidance, such as an ultrasound, to make sure they inject the grwoth factor injections into the precise location of tissue damage.

Because growth factor injections come from your blood, there’s minimal risk of side effects. You may experience increased tenderness and swelling after the procedure. This is a normal part of the healing process and will resolve over the following weeks. 

To enhance your healing process with orthobiologics like growth factor injections, call City Orthopedics or book an appointment online today.