My name is Dr. Tanuj Palvia. I'm an interventional pain specialist. I have been with physiologic medicine, which is a practice in Brooklyn, New York, for the last two years. Stem cells are a hot buzzword these days and to every single person they can mean something completely different. For us, stem cells are very powerful tool for regeneration, but, when I see a patient for the first time, oftentimes the diagnosis needs to be established, we really need to understand what we're working with; maybe, often, the scenario where the patient could respond to multiple therapies before we jump right into regenerative medicine. Maybe we should take a step back and sort of look at the big picture or maybe there's some underlying condition that's driving your situation here. So, stem cell, while it is a very powerful tool, it is not the only thing that we would be providing for our patients. Because it may not always be the answer for every particular problem.
Well, there definitely is a role for surgery. Okay? I mean, we would not be living as long as we are without having certain critical surgical techniques that we have. But definitely surgery should not be a first option or even a second option or a third option. We try to view surgery as a last option, because while surgical techniques have improved there's still a recovery time, there are not guarantees. So, we know there we believe in minimally invasive techniques and modalities that can help patients improve.
Regenerative Medicine - What Makes a Qualified Candidate?
I usually like to categorize patients into three buckets or categories, rather. The first one is just your healthy kind of, maybe twisted their ankle over the weekend. Something that might be able to get better in a short term.
Then the second category of patients are those that have had critical injuries. You break something, you snap something, a ligament- you tear a ligament, you break a bone, whatever it is that person is probably looking at surgery. And those are two kind of obvious conditions that, you know, we sort of have to look at at the very surface. But the majority of patients are somewhere in between those two and that's really where it takes the assessment of a team of expert practitioners to really assess will a regenerative option where conservative management, including, you know, maybe a short course of medications, different types of rehabilitative techniques or therapies or regenerative options such as platelet-rich plasma or stem cells. Will this road be helpful or maybe it's something that would not be helpful or it's something that, maybe, we will try this first. If we've had success there and you're showing continuous success we can avoid that surgery. Which the goal should be, to avoid surgery, if possible.
I believe the best care you can get for rehabilitation is multidisciplinary and I believe when you're in under the care and supervision of an MD, someone who really understands what the core problem is, what the core nature of the injury is. I believe that you're, if that, if that practitioner is working with other providers, I believe you have the greatest chance of success. Rather than going to a place where they just have physical therapy or they just have chiropractors or it's just a doctor who is just doing injections. And, then, that's it. I believe it's really, the strength of our clinic and the strength of the service that we provide is that we really try to attack your condition from multiple angles and so, therefore, what we are starting to believe in is not only trying to diagnose conditions so that we can target our therapies towards them, but how can we repair injuries or tissues without having to send you to surgery.
And one of tools that we've been using most lately is regenerative medicine, which is designed to actually try to heal or even regenerate an area that has been damaged by whatever injury present. As much as I tried to know everything and be able to solve every single problem, everyone's looking at a problem from their own scope and sometimes you need the expertise of someone. A complementary provider who can really help you look at something through a separate lens and try to come to the conclusion as to what the problem is and what the best treatment modalities are, really trying to optimize your medical background so we're often working together closely to really tailor your recovery.
I am Dr. Palvia working out of physiologic medicine in Brooklyn, New York .