Laura Sciaroni MD

Today was an interesting day fixing difficult problems. Details here: https://drsciaroni.com//04/operation-rainbow-surgery-day-2/

Just completed the first day of surgery for the Ecuador mission. Phew! Big day, but very rewarding!

Today was clinic day for Operation Rainbow in Loja, Ecuador. Here’s a couple highlights: https://drsciaroni.com/blog/

Today was an interesting day fixing difficult problems. Details here: https://drsciaroni.com//04/operation-rainbow-surgery-day-2/

Just completed the first day of surgery for the Ecuador mission. Phew! Big day, but very rewarding!

Today was clinic day for Operation Rainbow in Loja, Ecuador. Here’s a couple highlights: https://drsciaroni.com/blog/

The Operation Rainbow team is leaving for Loja, Ecuador this morning! One week in Loja fixing fractures and bone and joint deformities. Here's a photo of some of our bags - that's about 1/3rd of our 50lb duffels of medical equipment.

The New York Times has a great article about knees today - check it out! https://www.nytimes.com/guides/well/a-guide-to-your-knees

Some information on plantar fasciitis... hope it's helpful! https://drsciaroni.com/blog/

Embarking on an adventure next month... https://drsciaroni.com/blog/

Some information about tennis elbow. It's not just for tennis players... https://drsciaroni.com/blog/

Some interesting info about clavicle fractures for my cycling friends and patients. https://drsciaroni.com/blog/

A discussion about a common and pesky cause of knee pain for my patients: https://drsciaroni.com/blog/

As a follow up to my last post on stem cell and PRP injections, which you can see here: https://drsciaroni.com/blog/, I recently came across an article in the New York Times about 12 people who were hospitalized with severe infections after stem cell injections. Read the article here: https://www.nytimes.com//health/stem-cell-shots-bacteria-f This is an example of what can happen when an exciting new technology comes along. Some companies and individuals move quickly to cap...italize on it, and sometimes the crucial details, like infection control, get lost. And sometimes with disastrous consequences. This is why, in my opinion, it’s best to let a technology prove itself before we try it on our own bodies, rather than get caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment. No one anticipated that this infection problem would develop, and the technology (like many new medical technologies) has been made available to the public before safety protocols are fully worked out. For now, I would steer clear of using what ultimately promises to be very exciting technology. See more

I'm not an early adopter of new technologies, though I am interested in them. I like to see a lot of evidence before I offer a new treatment to my patients. I get asked a lot about these in the office, so here is some information. Orthobiologics - treatments using biological components that come from the patient to treat the patient - are in the news a lot lately. These technologies include stem cell therapy and PRP. Both of these are very exciting areas of research and st...udy. While stem cell therapy is a fascinating area of research, I don't see enough convincing evidence yet to adopt it myself and offer it to my patients. I would not pay the thousands required to try this treatment myself until I see a lot more data. I'll wait until there is more data before suggesting my patients pay that kind of money to try it. PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) injection has been well established for over 10 years and there is a great deal of clinical data available. I have been offering this in the office for a couple of years now. It is far less expensive than stem cell therapy, and there are many more years of data to back up it's effectiveness. I have seen great results using this treatment on a number of different conditions. PRP is an orthobiologic treatment for many conditions that do not respond to traditional methods of treatment such as anti-inflammatories, physical therapy or cortisone injection, and in some cases, may be an alternative to surgery. We take a sample of the patient’s blood, spin it down in a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets (which are full of growth and healing factors), and add a stabilizing agent that prevents them from rupturing immediately. When we inject them into an area that needs to heal, the platelets rupture gradually and bathe the area in those growth and healing factors. This solution is not for acute inflammation or conditions which can resolve well with more conservative treatment, but has been very helpful in resolution of recalcitrant cases of tennis elbow, achilles tendonitis, hip bursitis, and some types of hip and knee joint pain including arthritis. Unlike cortisone, there are no long term negative effects from repeated injection, though most conditions will respond to only one injection.