Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who has performed thousands of reconstructive surgeries, explains why regenerative (biologic) therapies can be appropriate alternatives to major orthopedic surgery. He shares an anecdote about an NCAA Division I football player whose hip surgery failed, requiring revision and prolonged (>1 year) rehab, to illustrate the risks and irreversible nature of some surgeries. Schacter argues that biologic/regenerative joint treatments—even if not covered by insurance—can provide pain relief and potentially buy 2–4 years before a major procedure is needed, and urges patients to explore non-surgical options and consult Pinnacle Integrative Orthopedics before committing to surgery.
Chapters
I wanted to talk a little bit about surgery. I'm an orthopedic surgeon. As you know, I'm a board certified orthopedic surgeon. I've done thousands of reconstructive surgeries. And I wanted to talk about some of the reasons why we do these regenerative therapies. Why would we want to do something that your insurance doesn't pay for? Why do we want to give you this time? Why do we want to help relieve your pain without cutting?
In orthopedic surgery, we call it healing with steel. Well, let me tell you, I met.
A young man last weekend. He is a NCAA Division 1 football player, is a tremendously talented athlete and he just went through a surger for his hip.
Now he underwent this surgery.
He's had a very painful rehabilitation and unfortunately the hip surgery did not work. So he ended up having to have a revision surgery. And now he's in a very long rehab process. He's been over a year from when he could play a sport. He's losing the things that he loves and it's weighing on him. This young man was crushed. He just doesn't understand why he's not getting better.
And this makes me want to cry.
Just seeing patients who suffer through painful and possibly unneeded surger so that they can come out the other side of it and then not be as good as they were before surgery is crushing. That's not what we're going for in orthopedic surgery.
But that does happen. And so I want you to understand that when I use that knife, when I cut, I can't take that back.
We end up doing a major surgery and oftentimes these work out great. But there are a percent of patients where the surgery doesn't go as we would expect, recovery doesn't go as we would expect, and these patients have chronically painful, debilitating joints. And if we could do something short of surgery, that can buy you time, that can give you relief of your severe joint pain without having a major surgery and the risk of major complication, why would we not try? And that is where biologics therapies come in. That's where regenerative therapies for your joints makes sense. Even if we have an upfront expense.
For this, what if we can buy.
You two to four years before you need to have a major procedure?
And so come and see us.
Let's talk about what your options are. Sometimes the only option is surgery. But let's get there together.
Let's make sure that we've explored all of our options.
We've made sure that we've checked off all of those boxes and we've tried everything before we do a major orthopedic surgery. So this is Josh Schachter at Pinnacle Integrative Orthopedics. We would love to hear from you. Come and see us. Let's talk about your joint pain.
