Can Bone Marrow Cells Improve the Healing of Rotator Cuff Repairs? Learn More from Louisville Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Stacie Grossfeld

rotator cuff injury and repairThe progression and future significant advances in orthopaedic surgery will most likely come from our understanding of bone marrow derived cells and other factors at the cellular level to assist in recovering from orthopedic surgery, treatment of tendinitis and treatment of osteoarthritis (OA).

An interesting article was published in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow in February 2013 looking at the effect of bone marrow derived cells that were obtained from the footprint of the rotator cuff repair.

This was a laboratory study using a chimeric rat model. They divided the rats into 2 groups. Group 1 had their rotator cuff repair with the addition of drilling holes in the footprint of the repair bringing bone marrow cells in contact with the rotator cuff.  The second group had a standard cuff repair without the addition of the bone marrow aspirate.

Dr. Kida, et al., found that the rotator cuff repair was significantly stronger with a higher ultimate force to failure in the bone marrow group compared to the group without the addition of the bone marrow derived cells.

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