Bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) is used in musculoskeletal medicine to focus your own body’s ability to heal. It has many well-done published randomized control trials (RCT) and studies that demonstrate both its effectiveness and safety in many musculoskeletal conditions, including osteoarthritis, tendinopathies, and damaged vertebral discs.
BMAC has been in clinical use since the 1990’s and has the most potential for musculoskeletal repair. The bone marrow is a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which are a potent cell for focusing the body’s own repair process. MSCs bind to an injury site and initiate and organize repair to the damaged tissue. Precisely placing BMAC into the site of injury will initiate the healing process by activating on the damaged cartilage or tendon. This is an inflammatory process, and inflammation is the vital first phase of healing.
FAQ’s
First, your bone marrow is aspirated or drawn out of the back part of the pelvis. This is really not as bad as it might sound. You will lay face down on a comfortable body pillow, and the skin over your lower back and hips will be thoroughly cleaned with a surgical skin preparation called Chloroprep and draped. We then numb the skin and the surface of the bone at the aspiration site. After the skin is numb, we use a special needle designed to go through bone to enter the bone marrow cavity in the hip bones near your lower back, near your buttocks. Then we aspirate the bone marrow into a syringe with a small amount of anti-coagulant (heparin) in it to keep the bone marrow from clotting during this process. Let me know if you have an allergy to heparin. This process is repeated at least at three sites on the bone, but up to six sites depending on the amount of BMAC needed to do the case. A bandage will be placed on the aspiration site. Then the bone marrow is filtered to get rid of very tiny bone fragments and is transferred in sterile fashion into a special centrifuge tube. It is then centrifuged for two cycles to isolate the MSCs to make the final BMAC ready for injection.
- Pain relief
- Reduced swelling
- Increase joint function
- Increased condition of joint cartilage
Most common risk: mild bruising around the BMAC harvest site.
Rare occurrences: anytime a needle is injected, even when drawing blood, there is a slight risk of infection, bleeding, tendon damage or nerve injury.
Within 2-6 weeks after the BMAC procedure most patients report an increase in stability and strength alongside a decrease in pain.