Osteonecrosis in the HipEvery bone and joint in your body requires adequate blood flow to function properly. Osteonecrosis is a disease resulting from reduced blood flow to these areas, which causes the bones to break down and die. The condition can appear in a number of joints throughout the body, especially the hips, knees, shoulders and ankles. If you develop osteonecrosis in your hip, it may inhibit your ability to walk.

Spine Correction Center can help diagnose your condition and provide a treatment plan to manage your pain and improve the health and strength of your bones and joints.

What is Osteonecrosis?

In people with healthy bones, new bone material is constantly replacing old bone. This keeps bones strong and allows them to heal if they become injured. With osteonecrosis, your bone breaks down faster than replacement material can grow. Without treatment, the bones in your affected joint deteriorate and prevent you from moving that joint without pain.

Symptoms of Osteonecrosis

When the condition first sets in, you may have no symptoms at all. The first sign of pain appears when you put weight on your hip or other affected joint. As the disease progresses, you may experience pain even when the joint is at rest. From the initial onset of pain to losing total use of the joint, a few months to more than a year may pass.

Causes of Osteonecrosis

The fundamental cause of osteonecrosis is decreased blood flow to the bones in your affected joint, but the reasons for this can vary widely. Some known causes include:

  • Injury
  • Alcohol use
  • Steroid medication use
  • Increased pressure inside the bone

You’re at risk for osteonecrosis if you undergo radiation treatment, chemotherapy or organ transplant. It’s also more common to see this disease in patients with cancer, lupus, HIV, osteoarthritis, blood disorders and other illnesses.

Osteonecrosis Treatment Options

When you meet with your Spine Correction Center doctor, you’ll discuss the best treatment plan for your current condition based on your age, the disease’s progression, which joint is affected and the cause, if known. The goal is to improve the use of the joint, prevent further damage and reduce pain.

Traditional non-surgical treatments include taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), performing range-of-motion exercises, undergoing electrical stimulation and avoiding use of the affected joint. As time goes on, many patients eventually require surgery. Fortunately, you may avoid this with Stem Cell Therapy.

Osteonecrosis and Stem Cell Therapy Treatment

At Spine Correction Center, we recommend Stem Cell Therapy as a natural, non-invasive, non-surgical and non-pharmaceutical treatment option to help avoid surgery and reduce pain. Stem Cell Therapy has been shown to treat osteonecrosis with a simple, one-time in-office injection.

Similar to cortisone and steroid injections, stem cells have anti-inflammatory benefits. However, the benefits go far beyond this because stem cells actually restore degenerated tissue by replacing damaged cells in your body. The injection also contains hyaluronic acid, which lubricates joints and tendons, easing your pain and restoring mobility.

Spine Correction Center is one of the few clinics in America to offer amniotic stem cells for Stem Cell Therapy, which can turn into just about any type of tissue found in your joints including cartilage, ligament, tendon, bone and muscle. The only tissue they can’t become is nerve tissue. Stem Cell Therapy is a “curative” treatment, allowing your body to permanently grow new joint tissue and eliminate pain for good.

What to Expect

The Stem Cell Therapy procedure is performed right in our Fort Collins office. After an evaluation and x-rays to determine the extent of your condition, our nurse practitioner delivers an injection. The entire visit takes less than 90 minutes, and you can resume your normal activities right away. You can expect to see initial improvement within a few weeks and notice a steady progression toward a pain-free life as your healing advances over time.

Call for a Free Osteonecrosis Consultation

Osteonecrosis doesn’t have to be a life sentence. The condition is fixable with the help of Stem Cell Therapy and a specialized treatment plan from Spine Correction Center. Contact us online or call (970) 658-5115 today to schedule your free consultation!