Start with the care that fits your joint now

Home care still counts as treatment

A brief break from the exact motion that hurts can settle worse soreness. Staying still too long often leaves a joint weaker and stiffer.

Gentle movement, steady strength work, and a cane or brace may ease strain. Ask your doctor if common pain medicine fits your stomach, kidneys, and heart.

For a time, adjust just one routine: walking, lifting, chores, or exercise. Then you'll have a better idea which change helped.

PRP uses a prepared part of your own blood

The letters PRP stand for platelet-rich plasma. Staff take your blood, separate the platelets, and make that part more concentrated for an office procedure.

Concentrated PRP puts more of the separated platelets into the prepared fluid. Ask what the doctor plans to place at the sore area and how the two choices differ.

QC Kinetix offers regenerative treatments, non-surgical office procedures including PRP or concentrated PRP, after a joint exam. Ask who handles the blood, the expected visit count, and the total bill.

Don't pay until you understand exactly what the doctor plans to use. The answer belongs in writing with the visit schedule.

Surgery may deserve its own opinion

When movement is badly limited, a surgeon can explain likely gains, limits, and recovery. You haven't agreed to an operation just by hearing that opinion.

Knee or hip surgery alternatives means care you may try instead of surgery. Compare each choice by relief, time, full cost, and recovery before deciding.

Set a date to check one movement

Before treatment, pick a routine movement you'd like to regain. Put a date on the calendar for checking that movement again.

If the first choice doesn't help, ask what comes next. That date keeps the cost and lost time from quietly growing.

Sources

1. The OARSI non-surgical management guideline evaluated 60 interventions with GRADE methodology and built its recommendations around core treatments - structured exercise, weight management and self-management education - for every patient with knee osteoarthritis, regardless of what else is added.

   Bannuru RR, et al. — OARSI guidelines for the non-surgical management of knee, hip, and polyarticular osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis Cartilage, 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.joca.2019.06.011.

2. In a 480-patient, four-arm, multicenter randomized phase 2/3 trial, none of three orthobiologic cell injections - autologous bone marrow aspirate concentrate, autologous adipose stromal vascular fraction, or allogeneic umbilical cord tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal cells - was superior to any other, or to a corticosteroid injection control, on pain at 12 months.

   Mautner K, et al. — Cell-based versus corticosteroid injections for knee pain in osteoarthritis: a randomized phase 3 trial. Nat Med, 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02632-w.

3. In a prospective randomized trial of 90 patients with Kellgren-Lawrence grade 1-3 knee osteoarthritis, bone marrow aspirate concentrate produced outcomes equivalent to - not better than - leukocyte-rich platelet-rich plasma through 24 months.

   Anz AW, et al. — Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate Is Equivalent to Platelet-Rich Plasma for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis at 2 Years: A Prospective Randomized Trial. Am J Sports Med, 2022. DOI: 10.1177/03635465211072554.

4. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 27 Level I studies (1,042 PRP, 226 BMAC, 1,128 hyaluronic acid patients) found PRP and BMAC both outperformed hyaluronic acid on WOMAC, VAS and subjective IKDC scores - note the BMAC evidence base is roughly one fifth the size of the PRP one.

   Belk JW, et al. — Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis Who Receive Platelet-Rich Plasma or Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate Injections Have Better Outcomes Than Patients Who Receive Hyaluronic Acid: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Arthroscopy, 2023. DOI: 10.1016/j.arthro.2023.03.001.

5. A Bayesian network meta-analysis of 48 randomized trials covering 9,338 knees found hyaluronic acid and PRP significantly improved pain versus placebo, and that BMAC accounted for only 2.5 percent of the studied injections - the thinnest evidence base of the four comparators.

   Jawanda H, et al. — Platelet-Rich Plasma, Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate, and Hyaluronic Acid Injections Outperform Corticosteroids in Pain and Function Scores at a Minimum of 6 Months as Intra-Articular Injections for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis. Arthroscopy, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.arthro.2024.01.037.

6. A 2024 systematic review of 8 Level I randomized trials in 937 patients found bone marrow aspirate concentrate improved pain and function versus baseline from one month, but the comparative advantage over other injections was inconsistent across timepoints.

   Han JH, et al. — Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate Injections for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. Orthop J Sports Med, 2024. DOI: 10.1177/23259671241296555.

7. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of 6 randomized trials found microfragmented adipose tissue and PRP both reached the minimal clinically important difference on most outcomes to 12 months, with no clear superiority of the fat-derived preparation despite its higher price.

   Park YB, et al. — Microfragmented Adipose Tissue as an Alternative to Platelet-Rich Plasma for Intra-articular Injection in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Am J Sports Med, 2025. DOI: 10.1177/03635465251337759.

8. A network meta-analysis of 79 randomized trials in 8,761 patients ranked the intra-articular injectables for knee osteoarthritis on VAS and WOMAC at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months, placing the cell-based options within a crowded field rather than above it.

   Anil U, et al. — The efficacy of intra-articular injections in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: A network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Knee, 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.knee.2021.08.008.

9. FDA states in its consumer alert that the only FDA-approved stem cell products in the United States are blood-forming stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood, approved for disorders of the blood-forming system, and that NONE of these products - stem cells, stromal vascular fraction, umbilical cord blood, Wharton's jelly or amniotic fluid - has been approved for the treatment of any orthopedic condition, including osteoarthritis, tendonitis, disc disease, tennis elbow, back pain, hip pain, knee pain, neck pain or shoulder pain.

   US Food and Drug Administration, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research — Consumer Alert on Regenerative Medicine Products Including Stem Cells and Exosomes. , 2020.