Avascular necrosis is the death of bone tissue due to lack of blood supply. Also called osteonecrosis, avascular necrosis can lead to tiny breaks in the bone and the bone’s eventual collapse. Avascular Necrosis is a disease where the cells of bone in the ball of the hip joint die due to blood deficiency. Adults who are 20-50 years old are at risk. The process of bone rebuilding takes place after an injury as well as during normal growth. Normally, bone continuously breaks down and rebuilds – old bone is reabsorbed and replaced with new bone. The process keeps the skeleton strong and helps it to maintain a balance of minerals. In the course of avascular necrosis, however, the healing process is usually ineffective and the bone tissues break down faster than the body can repair them. If left untreated, the disease progresses, the bone collapses, and the joint surface breaks down, leading to pain and arthritis.
In 80 % of cases, both hips are affected. So basically, there is dead bone in the ball of the hip. Dr. Shailendra Patil one of the renown orthopedic surgeon in Mumbai from Sterling Wockhardt Hospital, Vashi –Navi
Mumbai recently began stem cell treatments by using concentrated autologous bone marrow as the adjuvant to minimally invasive knee replacement decompression to treat patients with early-stage AVN. After surgeons decompress the femoral head, adult mesenchymal stem cells obtained from the iliac crest is injected into the area of osteonecrosis. The stem cell procedure takes approximately 30 minutes and is done under regional anaesthesia. Afterwards, it would likely be beneficial to be on the walker for six weeks, attempting to limit weight bearing on the hip and allow bone healing.
Dr Shailendra Patil explained, Stem cell therapy has been become popular in the world to treat the hip bone disorder by rejuvenating its tissues with the bone marrow of the patient. Stem cells in the marrow of the affected bone are separated from red blood cells and blood plasma through a clinical process and injected into the hip joint replacement surgery of the patient. Dr Shailendra Patil further added that this latest treatment retains the natural bone, which was not the case earlier. He has successfully used stem cells to cure the hip joint disorder, relieving affected patients from expensive surgery and conservative treatment. “We have so far treated seven patients, including two non-resident Indians (NRIs) suffering from hip joint disorder using their stem cells and helped them to resume normal life within months”
