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Stem Cell Treatment For Grappling Injuries

Stem Cell Treatment For Grappling Injuries

Guest post by Mark Lajhner, founder and chief instructor of Kaizen MMA Academy in Belgrade, Serbia. He is a Judo black belt (Serbian national team member), BJJ purple belt and multiple medallist in Freesyle Wrestling. You can find Mark Lajhner’s FREE MMA course Here.

What is stem cell treatment, and is it good for injuries? Today I’ll undergo it on my knee and you can watch the whole process and find out more about stem cell therapy for orthopedic injuries. You will also find out where you can get very high-quality treatment at the most affordable price.

First, here is an interview with Dr. Marko Majstorovic, a pediatric plastic surgeon and the head of Stem Medical clinic in Belgrade, Serbia. He has performed this treatment on me and will explain more about it.

1. WHAT IS STEM CELL THERAPY AND HOW SAFE IS IT?

Stem cell therapy is a therapy that uses your own body stem cells for regenerating certain tissues that need regeneration. It is very safe and it uses your own cells that are taken from your fat through liposuction. That way you have no allergic reactions. We do it in sterile conditions so there is no chance for infection.

2. WHAT CONDITIONS CAN BE TREATED WITH STEM CELLS AND HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT? CAN YOU GIVE US EXAMPLES?

Stem cell therapy is a rather new kind of therapy, and all the illnesses and conditions that can be treated with stem cells are expanding. What is certain now is that most orthopedic problems can be solved using stem cells. Gonarthrosis, coxarthrosis, some major fractures that are very difficult to heal. Those are the things that are mostly treated with stem cells. In short, today stem cell therapy for orthopedic injuries is common.

3. WHAT ABOUT SPORTS INJURIES?

Sports injuries are certainly a part of conditions that can be treated. As sports people know, it is very easy to damage your knee or damage your hip, or ankle or shoulder, and cartilage in these joints cannot be regenerated by the body itself. Rather it needs help.
So what we do is we infiltrate stem cells into joints, they regenerate the cartilage and it solves your problem.

 

4. WHAT DOES STEM MEDICAL CLINIC SPECIALIZE IN?

We specialize in stem cell therapy for orthopedic injuries, i.e. orthopedic conditions such as gonarthrosis, coxarthrosis, injuries regarding the shoulder, knee, hip, ankle or any joint.

5. CAN YOU WALK US THROUGH THE PROCEDURE USING MY EXAMPLE?

Ok, I will refer to you as the patient. So when the patient comes to our clinic for a mesenchymal stem cell therapy, first he will have an informative conversation with an anesthesiologist.

Afterwards, we need to take some blood for washing the stem cells later on.

Blood taken to be used for washing the fat and separating the stem cells

Then we have the usual prep for surgery (putting in the IV, connecting the patient to the monitor that shows his heart beats and blood pressure).

Then comes the anesthesia. A local anesthetic is administered to the abdomen, and the patient also receives some mild sedatives that allow him to sleep. You breathe on your own, you can be woken up but you don’t feel any pain. This shouldn’t be confused with classical total anesthesia. In both cases the patient is unconscious, but the one we are using is lighter and milder.

Then we do the liposuction which is done in the periumbilical region (the abdominal region near the umbilicus).

Afterwards, we wake up the patient. Actually, the patient wakes up by himself, and he is allowed to go home for about 5-6 hours. And during that time we prepare the stem cells for the patient.

Afterward, the patient is called upon, he comes back to the clinic and gets his stem cells which are prepared for him into the region that we need to treat. We expect that the stem cells that you’ve got from your own fat will regenerate the cartilage that you’ve damaged through your sport.

 Stem cells injection into my knee
Stem cells injection into my knee

6. WILL THE MENISCUS ALSO BE REGENERATED?

It depends. The meniscus cannot grow by itself, but depending on the damage that you have and the place of the damage, it can help heal. If the healing of the meniscus is possible since the meniscus cannot be healed on every spot, some parts of the meniscus can heal, others cannot. That depends on the blood vessels that come through.

7. HOW MUCH DOES THIS TREATMENT COST HERE IN BELGRADE, SERBIA, AND WHAT’S THE USUAL PRICE FOR IT IN THE WESTERN WORLD?

The stem cell therapy treatment in Belgrade, Serbia is much cheaper than anywhere else I believe. The price varies between 2.500 – 3.500 Euros (2.800 – 3.900 USD) depending on the joint where the stem cells are being administered. Meaning how difficult it is to get to that joint with a needle. The price for the knee is 2.500 Euros (2.800 USD).

We are trying to push this procedure through. People in Serbia still don’t know about it, and we are doing it rather cheap so we can push it through to the people who need it.

The price for this kind of surgery anywhere in the Western world is 20.000 – 25.000 USD, and people who try to ask around know this.

8. HOW CAN PEOPLE GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU IF THEY’RE INTERESTED IN COMING HERE AND DOING THIS TREATMENT?

People can reach us through our website: http://StemMedical.rs
Through Viber/What’s Up: +38163/778-4727
Or email: marko572@gmail.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marko-majstorovic-b017769b/

The procedure wasn’t too bad. I felt nothing during the liposuction, and afterward only a little bit of pain and dizziness which was to be expected since I was sedated.

The injection to my knee was a slight inconvenience, but I’ve already had a needle in my knee the day before when Milan Todorovic (my chiropractor, physiotherapist and a part of the Stem Medical team) extracted some residual swelling which resulted from a surgery I had a month before, so it was nothing new.

Extracting the swelling the day before my stem cell treatment
Extracting the swelling the day before my stem cell treatment

So everything went well and I’m happy that it’s over.

There were two machines used in this process. The first one separates the stem cells from fat (NeoGenesis Unistation ver. 2), and the other one (Luna Stem) counts the total number of stem cells harvested, as well as the number of active ones. The patient receives the report printed out.

Luna Stem and NeoGenesis Unistation ver.2 machines
Luna Stem and NeoGenesis Unistation ver.2 machines

The doctor told me that he couldn’t extract too much fat from me since I didn’t have a lot of it. That came as a surprise. Even though I’m not fat, I don’t exactly have washboard abs. They were able to take 23cc of fat, and from that make 7,12 million stem cells. That is an ok amount, but if I was fatter, they could have made more.

The least amount of stem cells needed for this treatment to work is one million. And if they cannot harvest that much, the will not charge you anything. The consultation is free so you can send them an email, call them and send them your diagnostics like MRIs and X-rays.

I will have to wait for a couple of months to see the results of the stem cell therapy and I will inform you about it.

If you want to get stem cell therapy for orthopedic injuries I recommend you high-quality treatment at an affordable price far lower than in other parts of the world, contact the doctor and mention that you saw the video on MMA Coach.

You can contact Dr. Marko Majstorović here:

People can reach us through our website: http://StemMedical.rs
Through Viber/What’s Up: +38163/778-4727
Or email: marko572@gmail.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marko-majstorovic-b017769b/