Krone: Wrist Osteoarthritis: “I Can Write Again!”

Treatment with fat stem cells helped nurse Ottilie Ebner to cure long-term, painful wear in the right wrist.

Author: Dr. med. Wolfgang Exel

Due to increasing pain in the right wrist nurse Ottilie Ebner gradually lost her autonomy over the years. She did not want put up with this any longer and decided to undergo treatment with stem cells from her own body fat. Today she is free of pain and can master her daily life like 20 years ago.

When working as nurse Ottilie Ebner was used to help to needy people. So much the better she knows how important autonomy in everyday life is for quality of life. Decades of hard work in the hospital left traces: Years ago she had pain in her wrist for the first time while opening a bottle. The pain only went on to get worse. Daily routines turned into difficult tasks. The Diagnosis: Osteoarthritis of the right wrist joint.

“I could neither write nor dry my hair, wire wipes or iron my clothes,” she recalled. Driving a car and visiting the fitness center were also impossible. Physiotherapy and medication only relieved the pain for a short while. “When I heard that fat stem cells helped to treat joint pain, I was intrigued,” says Mrs. Ebner.

She then contacted the Viennese doctor DDr. Karl-Georg Heinrich. Fat and its components have been at the center of DDr. Heinrich’s medical activity for years: “Fat tissue has a high content of vital cells that contribute to the regeneration of injuries. In the joint treatment we support this self-healing mechanism of the body by implanting autologous fat stem cells.”

In the course of a small surgical procedure under local anesthesia DDr. Heinrich first harvested a little portion of fat from Ottilie Ebner using a thin cannula. During surgery so-called mesenchymal stem cells were extracted from the fat and immediately injected in the region of the patient’s wrist.

About two hours later the procedure was done and Ottilie Ebner could leave the clinic. “Following the procedure ideally the tissue regenerates, inflammations disappear, pain is relieving and the wrist becomes motvable again,” DDr. Heinrich explains. A series of clinical studies confirm this effect.

Finally relief for Mrs. Ebner: “The pain declined day by day.” Already few weeks after the procedure she was completely free of pain in the right hand and could write again. “I am meanwhile able to drive the car and enjoy my recovered autonomy,” the satisfied patient reports. Recently she has started with fitness training again.

Physician DDr. Heinrich is delighted by this success: “For patients who suffer from movement limitations and chronic pain due to joint problems it is very relieving when they regain mobility and are free of pain.” Treatment with fat stem cells offers many patients for whom artificial joints or surgery under general anesthesia are not an option a gentle alternative.

Contact: DDr. Karl-Georg Heinrich: ☎ +43 1 532 18 01, info@ddrheinrich.com

Published in Krone Gesund on October 21, 2017.

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