Muscles attach to bone via cables called tendons. While arthritis is a significant disabling condition for patients, so too are tendon tears, especially those of the rotator cuff tendons, elbow tendons-tennis elbow, amongst others. Also, when our muscles get injured by contusion or partial tearing, often muscle heals with scar.
The use of various adult stem cells from our own bodies can help muscle regenerate without scar and better help tendons to heal. The addition of platelet rich plasma can aid in the healing of tendon tears; yet, adult stem cells have been shown to be even better.

At Bennett Orthopedics and Sportsmedicine, Dr. Bennett has been utilizing adult stem cells to aid in the healing of tissue with multiple surgical procedures of the shoulder, knee, hip and ankle. In fact, in select situations, the injections of these cells may be all that is needed to slow the progression of cartilage injury.

Intramuscular Transplantation of Muscle-Derived Stem Cells Accelerates Skeletal Muscle Healing After Contusion Injury via Enhancement of Angiogenesis. Shusuke Ota MD, PhD, Kenji Uehara MD, PhD, Masahiro Nozaki MD PhD, Tetsuo Kobayashi MD, PhD, Satoshi Terada MD, Freddie H. Fu MD, DSc, and Johnny Huard, PhD The American Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol. 39, No. 9 2011 Conclusion: intramuscular injection of MDSCs at 4 days after injury improved and accelerated skeletal muscle healing by increasing angiogenesis and decreasing scar tissue formation.

Tendons often fail because of repetitive use overload. The tendon tissue loses its elasticity as we age. The tendon with repetitive trauma becomes less elastic and acts more like a string, exposing it to rupture. With the addition of PRP and stem cells, the tendon can actually remodel, become younger and regain some of its elastic properties.
The following patient example is a very provocative one. Dr. Bennett had a 58 year old over-50 body building National and North American champion presents with a distal quadriceps tendon disruption which happened as he stepped off a truck bed. This disruption occurred spontaneously and was severely disabling. The patient fell to the ground and his knee was unable to hold his weight. The quadriceps tendon inserts into the patella.

Dr. Bennett extracted adult bone marrow derived stem cells from his pelvis. In conjunction with surgical repair, he added the cells to the tendon and utilized Platelet rich plasma as an “in-body” culture medium to stimulate and grow the cells.

Distal Quadriceps tendon disruptions are injuries that often require bracing for months and can end up with loss of range of motion and disability.

The following video is a 30 month chronicle of a patient’s injury, treatment, stem cells and outcome. While the surgical treatment contributed to significant improvement, the addition of the stem cells and PRP allowed this patient to return to athletic activity at the level he had prior to injury!