Stem Cell Therapy
Highly Experienced in Stem Cell Therapy
Dr. Payson Flattery incorporated stem cell therapies into his practice over 12 years ago through Center for Integrated Medicine and Bend Regenerative Medicine. During this time, there have been multiple changes in the oversight of delivery of the stem cells for orthopedic and systemic complaints.
New Stem Cell Treatment Opportunities for Patients
Recently, there was a new ruling that allows individuals to work with a qualified physician to harvest their own stem cells and send them to a stem cell bank for future use. The cells are cryopreserved for as long as you want them stored. This landmark case has opened up a whole new field of medicine in the United States.
This is a relatively easy process and exciting to know that patients will always have stem cells that are easily accessible if needed for future conditions.
As well, patients no longer have to travel to foreign countries for high dose stem cell therapies. This is exciting news as it allows us to address complex chronic illnesses and orthopedic/musculoskeletal and neurologic conditions with your own cells.
In the past, this therapy in the U.S. was limited to what cells were extracted, without the ability to expand or grow out more cells in a lab to increase the number of cells for intensive treatment. The recent ruling now allows the patient to benefit from a lab growing more cells to be used for intensive therapy.
The Costs for Banking and Growing Cells
The cost to bank and store a patient’s cells with cyropreservation is between $250-$350 per year. At any time the lab can be contacted and they will expand the patient’s cells from original “mother” cell population to yield cells in lots of 10 million.
As of August 2023, the cost is $500 per 10 million cells. Most orthopedic procedures take between 10 and 20 million cells. Most IV therapy treatment is between 20 and 50 million cells.
We Use Adipose Tissue for Stem Cells
The advantage of adipose as a source of stem cells is that these cells die or replicate every 6 to 7 years compared to every 120 days for your bone marrow cells.
This means, biologically speaking, an adipose source of stem cells behave much younger. They are smaller and stealthier, allowing for better tissue healing. Therefore, even if you’re over the age of 60 this is still a very viable option.
More on adipose stem cell therapy
Adipose Derived Stem Cell therapy is available at a reasonable cost to patients
Lipoaspiration, a minimally invasive procedure, is performed in our clinic to remove adipose (fat). The adipose is then sent to a certified and FDA regulated lab where the stem cells are removed.
The adipose sample is then sent to the lab and processed. The cells are removed from the adipose tissue and expanded to yield more cells. This process generally takes about six weeks until the time of your injection procedure, either Orthopedic, IV, or both.
For more information, make an appointment with Dr. Payson Flattery and he can determine if you’re a candidate and discuss the details of this new and exciting change in medicine.
What to Expect When Harvesting Stem Cells
Please shower the morning prior to your procedure. Arrive on time and expect the procedure to last an hour to one hour 20 minutes.
Your skin overlying your hips/love handle region or upper buttocks is cleaned and draped. A small amount of anesthetic with epinephrine is injected into your skin and a 3 mm incision is made. A small blunt nose catheter, 3.1 mm in diameter, is inserted into the incision into the fatty layer of tissue.
Sodium chloride with anesthetic and epinephrine is then infiltrated into the fatty tissue and removed. In its’ place, another catheter is inserted and negative pressure is applied to remove the adipose tissue.
You are bandaged with a butterfly closure and compression bandage. The bandage may need to be replaced as some anesthetic and fluid can leak from the small incision site. This is generally minimal and of no concern.
You can expect to have some mild soreness that can last up to a month. Very rarely, one can have slight sensation of tingling over the area after the procedure.