This video features a long-term patient follow-up shared by Dr. Don Buford at Texas Orthobiologics, answering a very common question: How long can a stem cell injection provide relief for knee arthritis?
Key Highlights:
- The Patient's Baseline: Before seeing Dr. Buford, the patient suffered from mid-range knee arthritis (classified as Kellgren-Lawrence Grade 2/3). She experienced significant pain and limited mobility. She had previously tried several standard treatments with absolutely no improvement, including multiple MRIs/scans, cortisone (steroid) injections, and a series of four hyaluronic acid (gel) injections.
- The Treatment: Looking for a non-surgical alternative, she chose to undergo a single, in-office bone marrow concentrate (BMC) injection—often referred to as a stem cell injection—utilizing her own cells.
- 4.5 Years of Long-Term Relief: The patient reports that she experienced near-immediate benefits following the procedure. For four and a half years, she enjoyed a dramatically improved quality of life and successfully returned to high-impact activities she loved, such as hiking, weightlifting, and taking multi-mile daily walks with significantly reduced pain.
- Current Status: After four and a half years of continuous relief from that single injection, her arthritic symptoms have recently begun to return. She returned to Dr. Buford's clinic with the hope of repeating the exact same BMC procedure to restart her relief timeline.
