Chicago Hospital Evaluates New Stem-Cell Therapy For Pain

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(CBS) Is it the future of pain relief, the end of pain pills, physical therapy and knee or hip replacements?

CBS 2s Mary Kay Kleist looks at a new procedure offered at only a handful of places. Its still a bit controversial. But some doctors and their patients swear by it.

Linda Morning-Starpoole suffered terrible knee pain, the result of sports injuries when she was younger.

Traditional treatment might involve steroid injections, physical therapy and joint replacement. But she wanted an alternative.

The thought of me healing me with through my own stem cells is what sold me on the procedure, she says.

Heres how it works: Doctors take bone marrow from the hip and spin it in a machine to get the stem cells. Those cellsare then mixed with the patients platelets, a type of blood cell involved in healing.

The mixture is injected back into the joint, where the stem cells turn into new tissue, reduce pain and improve function.

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Chicago Hospital Evaluates New Stem-Cell Therapy For Pain