Utilizing stem cell therapy to promote natural healing with spine and orthopedic conditions.

Our goal is to help you restore your function and mobility or decrease your back and neck pain to restore your quality of life.

If you suffer from constant back pain, arthritis or discomfort in your joints, stem cell therapy may be a viable solution and the best option to treating your pain. Whether you are a professional athlete, a weekend warrior, or someone who wants to be active without continual pain and restrictions, we can help!

At Prairie Spine and Pain Institute, we are experts in treating degenerative conditions of the back, hips, knees and other joints through stem cell therapy procedures. Prior to performing stem cell treatments, our process confirms that other viable treatment solutions have been attempted with little to no success. Before invasive surgery and stem cell treatment we want to make sure patients have considered physical therapy, over the counter anti-inflammatory medicines, good nutrition, exercise and time to resolve pain problems.

Stem Cell Therapy Treatments

How could stem cells help? 
As an alternate approach to reducing pain, stem cell therapy can potentially postpone a surgical intervention in patients with degenerative disease, arthritis or “wear and tear” of the joints and discs.

What is the major advantage to stem cell treatments and injections? 
Is that foreign bodies or incisions are not introduce to the body. The treatment process of stem cell therapy does not surgically change the patient’s anatomy. Meaning there hasn’t been a change in patient’s body motion, something hasn’t been surgically added or removed from the body causing scar tissue or a change to the body. Complication rates, nerve injuries, and infections for the process are low to zero for the procedure. The procedure has much fewer safety concerns and is not as invasive as traditional surgeries.

How are stem cells administered for that focus? 
First, stem cells are taken from your pelvis through a large needle and then concentrated. Stem cell therapy for spine, neck and back pain is administered through infusing healthy, reparative cells into the deteriorated disc tissues; therefore, the disc can regenerate. Adult Stem cell injection is an outpatient, very low risk procedure with scheduled follow-ups to analyze the success and pain reduction levels.

Are stem cells FDA approved for this focus? 
Since these are your own stem cells being used for you, stem cell therapy for spine, neck and back pain does not require FDA approval for treatment of spinal conditions.

How effective is stem cell for my focus? 
Stem cell therapy for the spine, back and neck pain is shown to be very effective at relieving pain in many patients. Reducing a patient’s by half is an attainable result for stem cell therapy patients. Expectations for patients are a significant reduction in back pain and similar to the results of more invasive surgical procedures.

How long will it take to work? 
Stem cell therapy for the spine, back and neck pain is shown to have initial improvement and reduction in pain. Improvement can be seen in a couple of weeks, with maintaining improvement throughout the healing progress.

Could stem cell therapy be repeated? 
Stem cell therapy for spine, back and neck pain may be repeated if necessary to achieve optimal results. In addition to, if stem cell therapy does not meet the desired goals for pain reduction, surgical procedures are still viable and available options.

How could stem cells help? 
Stem cell therapy for the knee can help in the significantly in the reduction of pain and the improvement of function.

What is the major advantage to stem cell treatments and injections? 
Is that foreign bodies or incisions are not introduce to the body. The treatment process of stem cell therapy does not surgically change the patient’s anatomy. Meaning there hasn’t been a change in patient’s body motion, something hasn’t been surgically added or removed from the body causing scar tissue or a change to the body. Complication rates, nerve injuries, and infections for the process are low to zero for the procedure. The procedure has much fewer safety concerns and is not as invasive as traditional surgeries.

How are stem cells administered for that focus?
Stem cells are removed from your pelvis using a large bore needle. Then, stem cells for knee pain are administered by injecting the stem cells into an area of injury or chronic degeneration where the stem cells revive the damaged cartilage in the joint, allowing the knee to regenerate and heal.

Are stem cells FDA approved for this focus? 
Since these are your own stem cells being used for you, stem cell therapy for knee pain does not require FDA approval for treatment of those conditions.

How effective is stem cell for my focus? 
Stem cell therapy for knee pain treatments is often highly successful. Stem cell therapy for knee pain can also avoid the disability, down time, and risk associated with surgery. There is a minimal recovery time associated with stem cell therapy for knee pain.

How long will it take to work? 
Each patient may vary in length of time in seeing a reduction in pain. However, patients are encouraged to use the joint normally. Follow up treatments are important maintaining the stem cells progression throughout the healing process.

Could stem cell therapy be repeated? 
Stem cell therapy for knee pain may be repeated if necessary to achieve optimal results. Also, having treatment with stem cells does not exclude a person for available surgery. In addition to, if stem cell therapy does not meet the desired goals for pain reduction, surgical procedures are still viable and available options.

How could stem cells help? 
As an alternative approach to reducing pain, stem cell therapy for the hip can postpone surgical interventions or hip replacement procedures.

What is the major advantage to stem cell treatments and injections? 
Is that foreign bodies or incisions are not introduce to the body. The treatment process of stem cell therapy does not surgically change the patient’s anatomy. Meaning there hasn’t been a change in patient’s body motion, something hasn’t been surgically added or removed from the body causing scar tissue or a change to the body. Complication rates, nerve injuries, and infections for the process are low to zero for the procedure. The procedure has much fewer safety concerns and is not as invasive as traditional surgeries.

How are stem cells administered for that focus? 
First the stem cells are removed from your pelvis through a large needle. Then,stem cell therapy for the hip is administered through injecting the area of injury or chronic degeneration needed where the stem cells increase the natural repair process of degenerated and injured cartilage in arthritic joints.

Are stem cells FDA approved for this focus? 
Since these are your own stem cells being used for you, stem cell therapy for hip pain does not require FDA approval for treatment of those conditions.

How effective is stem cell therapy for my focus? 
Stem cell therapy for the hip is often significantly effective in the reduction of pain. Stem cell therapy for the hip can be effective in avoiding lengthy and painful rehabilitation periods.

How long will it take to work? 
Stem cell therapy for the hip is shown to have initial improvements in the reduction of pain. Patients are to return to normal activity soon after their procedure.

Could stem cell therapy be repeated? 
Stem cell therapy for hip pain may be repeated if necessary to achieve optimal results. In addition to, if stem cell therapy does not meet the desired goals for pain reduction, surgical procedures are still viable and available options.

How could stem cells help? 
As an alternative approach to reducing pain, stem cell therapy for the shoulder and rotator cuff can postpone surgical interventions or joint replacement procedures.

What is the major advantage to stem cell treatments and injections? 
Is that foreign bodies or incisions are not introduce to the body. The treatment process of stem cell therapy does not surgically change the patient’s anatomy. Meaning there hasn’t been a change in patient’s body motion, something hasn’t been surgically added or removed from the body causing scar tissue or a change to the body. Complication rates, nerve injuries, and infections for the process are low to zero for the procedure. The procedure has much fewer safety concerns and is not as invasive as traditional surgeries.

How are stem cells administered for that focus? 
After removing the stem cells from your pelvis through a needle, stem cell therapy for the shoulder and rotator cuff is administered through injecting the area needed where the stem cells increase the natural repair process of degenerated and injured ligaments, tendons, and arthritic joints.

Are stem cells FDA approved? 
Since these are your own stem cells being used for you, stem cell therapy for shoulder pain does not require FDA approval for treatment of those conditions.

How effective is stem cell for my focus? And how long will it take to work? 
Stem cell therapy for the shoulder and rotator cuff is often shown to be effective. Patients are frequently able to return to normal activity following the procedure. Stem cell therapy for the shoulder and rotator cuff allows for patients to avoid lengthy rehabilitation periods.

Could stem cell therapy be repeated? 
Stem cell therapy for the shoulder and rotator cuff for pain may be repeated if necessary to achieve optimal results. In addition to, if stem cell therapy does not meet the desired goals for pain reduction, surgical procedures are still viable and available options.

Are you a candidate for Stem Cell Therapy? 
If you have instability or some other mechanical problems with your hips, knees or other joints, stem cell therapy may not be the best option or the correct choice of treatment. Adult stem cell treatment is not going make a mechanical defect or problem go away. However, patients who have degenerative disease, discs short in height in their back, lack of fluid or water in the discs, or have constant back pain can be very good candidates for injecting concentrated adult stem cells into the painful disc areas.

For shoulder, hip and knee candidates with bad arthritis or those who have been told they may need a resurfacing procedure or knee/hip replacement can be good candidates for adult stem cell treatment. Additionally, patients with partial rotator cuff tears, wear of the cartilage and those that don’t have ruptured ligaments, acl tears or mechanical inefficiency in their joints can be great candidates for this procedure as well.

stem cell therapyDegenerative disc disease in your spine isn’t really a disease, but the term used to describe common age- or injury-related changes to the discs in your spine. These include the loss of fluid/hydration in the discs, which can result in reduced flexibility, and tears or cracks in the outer layer of the disc that can cause it to bulge, rupture, or break apart. Depending on the location of the disc, those with degenerative disc disease may suffer from mild to debilitating neck or back pain, numbness, or a combination of both, that can also affect the arms and legs. If traditional non-surgical methods don’t take care of the pain, surgery involving removing the disc and replacing it with an artificial one or fusing the surrounding vertebrae is often the last-resort treatment. Stem cell therapy used in the area of the affected disc, may help the disc to heal itself. This would reduce the inflammation, thus reducing the pressure on the nerves that cause the pain or numbness.

Stem cell therapy may be appropriate for treating degenerative disc disease in cervical and lumbar discs.

Why try it?
While orthopedic surgery remains a reasonable treatment option for some injuries and degenerative conditions, it doesn’t always work for everyone and it requires violation of normal anatomy and tissue.

Adult stem cell therapy is a form of regenerative or biologic medicine

The goal of this minimally invasive procedure is to help you heal faster and regain pain-free motion while avoiding surgery and the inherit collateral damage it brings.

Adult stem cell therapy is a form of regenerative or biologic medicine. The goal of biologic therapy is to help your body heal itself. Stem cells exist naturally within your body. Their function is to provide healing in the event of injury. As we age, the number of stem cells in our body decreases, which can make our body’s natural healing less effective.

Our goal us to take stem cells from one part of a patient’s body, where they exist in higher concentrations and inject them into an injured area to potentially reinforce their power. The intent is that those stem cells will take cues from surrounding cells of certain types (bone, cartilage, muscle or other connective tissue) and develop into a similar type of cell, ultimately repairing the site.

How it works
At the Prairie Spine and Pain Institute, Dr. Kube uses x-ray guidance to remove stem cells from an area of higher concentration in your body, concentrates the cells with a patented device, and injects them into your injured or painful area to potentially boost your body’s healing process.

A lot of professional athletes have benefited from stem cell therapy

This procedure is typically performed with IV sedation and takes about 30 minutes. Concentrated platelets and plasma can be injected with the stem cells or alone into the injured or painful area to kick-start the healing process after a single blood draw.

The stem cell therapy procedure used by the Prairie Spine and Pain Institute uses the patented ART 21® device developed by Celling Technologies, with the support of Celling Biosciences, which is designed to maximize the highest yield of mononucleated cells.

Does it work?
Every patient is different. Two key determinants for success are dependent on the severity of your condition and your body’s response to stem cell therapy. At the Prairie Spine and Pain Institute, we provide consultations with patients from around the world to determine if you are a candidate.

A lot of professional athletes have benefited from stem cell therapy. It has helped them heal faster and get back into action without the extensive downtime, recovery, and rehabilitation required with traditional surgery.

What are stem cells?
Stem cells are unspecialized or undifferentiated cells, capable of two processes: self-renewal and differentiation/specialization.

What is Regenerative Medicine?
Regenerative medicine is a new and advancing scientific field focused on the repair and regeneration of damaged tissue utilizing stem cells that promote natural healing.

What is the difference between adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells?
The adult stem cells used in adult stem cell therapy are found in mature adult tissues including bone marrow and fat.

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are not found in the adult human body. ESCs are obtained from donated in-vitro fertilizations. The use of ESCs raises many ethical concerns for many reasons, one of which is that ESCs are not from your own body, thus, there is a possibility of immune rejection. Adult stem cells do not raise any ethical issues nor pose any risks for immune rejection.

Adult autologous stem cells, as in the cells used by the Prairie Spine and Pain Institute, are simply your own cells surgically directed to work for you.

Does the Prairie Spine and Pain Institute research or use embryonic stem cells in clinical procedures?
No, the cell therapy systems used by the Prairie Spine and Pain Institute use only autologous adult stem cells isolated from the patient. The Prairie Spine and Pain Institute does not participate in embryonic stem cell research or use embryonic stem cells in any of our clinical applications.

Are there ethical issues associated with harvesting adult stem cells?
No, adult stem cells do not raise ethical questions as they are harvested from the patient’s body and simply returned, or relocated, to that same patient during the same procedure.

Are there cancer-causing risks associated with adult stem cell therapy?
No. Where embryonic stem cells have been shown to form teratomas (germ cell tumors), there is no data that suggests adult stem cells have the same potential to promote the development of tumors.

Where do adult stem cells come from?
In adults, stem cells are present within various tissues and organ systems, the most common being bone marrow and fat tissues.

How does the Prairie Spine and Pain Institute obtain stem cells for use in adult stem cell therapy?
The Prairie Spine and Pain Institute uses a system that uses adult stem cells from bone marrow tissue. The stem cells are obtained through an aspiration procedure.

How are adult stem cells used?
Adult stem cells are used to treat patients with damaged tissues due to age or deterioration. During the procedure, stem cells are isolated from the patient, concentrated and delivered back to the patient at their site of injury to assist in the healing process.

Are there different types of adult stem cells?
Yes, there are many types of adult stem cells found in the body that have variable differentiation/specialization potential. The adult stem cells that aid in the repair of damaged tissue are multipotent, mesenchymal stem cells. These are located in bone marrow and fat tissue. These cells can become only four different tissue types: bone, cartilage, muscle, or other connective tissues such as tendon or ligament.

Are the harvested adult stem cells expanded in a laboratory setting prior to delivery back to the patient during adult stem cell therapy?
No, the Prairie Spine and Pain Institute does not use in vitro expansion. The stem cells are harvested, processed in the procedure room, and delivered back to the patient at the same point of care.

How do stem cells know what type of tissue to develop into?
The differentiation of stem cells is dependent on many factors, including cell signaling and micro-environmental signals. Based on these cues, stem cells are able to develop into healthy tissue needed to repair damaged tissue. For example, multipotent stem cells delivered to damaged bone will develop into bone cells to aid in tissue repair. Cells delivered into a joint or disc will develop into cartilage cells. The exact mechanism of lineage-specific differentiation is unknown at this point.

Will my body reject the stem cells?
No, adult stem cells are autologous, meaning they are already part of you, and non-immunogenic.

Where are stem cells currently being used?
Autologous adult stem cells are currently being used in hospitals and clinics during surgery, and other procedures, to aid in the repair of damaged tissues. Stem cells are also being used in both laboratory and clinical settings. Laboratories are using human and animal-derived stem cells to conduct in-vitro studies as well as in-vivo studies with small and large animals.

What medical disciplines are currently using stem cells in their treatment?
Stem cells are currently being used in orthopedic, cardiovascular, trauma and plastic surgeries and to treat disease. At the Prairie Spine and Pain Institute, we specialize in adult stem cell applications for both orthopedic and spine conditions.

What conditions would exclude me from being able to undergo adult stem cell therapy for orthopedics?
For spine patients, if you have severe stenosis, radiculopathy or spondylolisthesis, or other spine instability, you would not be a good candidate for stem cell therapy. For other orthopedic patients, a fracture or acute trauma (such as a complete ACL or meniscus tear) would exclude you. Even if stem cells won’t help you, we can evaluate your condition and provide you with alternatives. Please contact us if you’d like to schedule an appointment.

Are stem cells from a diabetic or a patient with any other autoimmune disease considered less viable or “unhealthy”?
No, all stem cells are equal regardless of diabetes or other autoimmune disease.

Is adult stem cell therapy covered by insurance?
Currently, insurance doesn’t cover stem cell treatment, but there are other orthopedic and spine treatments we can recommend that are covered by insurance. Please contact us if you would like to know more or schedule an evaluation.

Are there any clinical trials involving adult stem cells?
The Spine Institute is currently enrolling patients for two Mesoblast studies. Learn more here. The Prairie Spine and Pain Institute has ongoing enrollment, and wait listing, for Autologous Adult Stem Cell application studies. Click here to contact our research coordinator for more information.