"Stem Cells Offer New Hope For Recovery From Rotator Cuff Surgery" - Dr. Max Gomez
Stem cells have shown promise for all sorts of medical issues for years. You can now add shoulder surgery to that list. It's for the more than three million Americans who experience rotator cuff injuries each year. Seamus Mullen is a celebrity chef and depends on his arms and hands for his livelihood, so you can only imagine what he felt when a bike accident tore both or his rotator cuffs. Thankfully for Seamus, he was back in the gym just two months after having both shoulders operated on - something most people can't do for nearly a year post-up. His surgeon credits stem cells for the remarkable recovery. "They have the ability to become the tendon cells, so either they're becoming tendon cells or producing proteins that recruit other cells that help heal it," said his surgeon, Aruna M. Seneviratne, MD, assistant professor of orthopaedics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "At six months, there's 100 percent healing and at ten years there's almost zero re-tears." The stem cells more than did the trick for Seamus. Just as exciting, the approach has been shown to help other injuries such as tennis elbow, Achilles tendon tears, even knee arthritis.
- Aruna M. Seneviratne, MD, Assistant Professor, Orthopaedics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai