Schrader Orthopedics and Stem Cells
July 2014 - Memphis Magazine's 2014 Medical Guide - Innovative techniques and a pioneering spirit can best describe Dr. Lawrence Schrader with Schrader Orthopedics and Stem Cell Clinic. He has spent his entire orthopedic career looking for new alternatives for treating patients less invasively.
In 1996 he initially brought the partial knee replacement to the Mid-South after training with Dr. John Repicci. Dr. Repicci developed the procedure and recently replaced Dr. Schrader’s own knee. “It made sense to replace only the damaged portion of the knee, with a less invasive procedure. Patients are walking two hours after surgery.”
Dr. Schrader was approached by a colleague over two years ago to become part of a research team and train in a new method called SVF (Stromo- Vascular Fraction) Deployment. SVF makes large numbers of stem cells available to treat many common conditions especially arthritis.
Dr. Schrader agreed to travel to his home state of California to learn of current research on the use of SVF stem cells in treatment of patients. He also trained to harvest and deploy fat-derived SVF stem cells from a patient’s own fatty tissue. They are concentrated, identified, and counted. For joint
problems an orthopedist can also directly inject SVF into most joints including knees, hips, shoulders, and other small joints.
Being a good sport, Dr. Schrader volunteered to be a demonstration subject for the training course. “I had a small liposuction followed by SVF deployment to both of my painful shoulders and a failed arthritic knee.” He notes that it is interesting that there is an immediate effect of pain relief and reduction of swelling long before any stem cells can “set up shop.”
Dr. Schrader considered his experience and training and decided that this was an option he would provide for his patients. In general, inflammatory and autoimmune conditions can respond to treatment as well as degenerative and many neurologic diseases. Some diseases that are being studied include Crohn’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Neuropathy, Parkinson’s, Migraine Headaches, Peyronies Disease, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. An extensive number of conditions are considered eligible for this experimental treatment; however, being truly a clinically experimental procedure, there are established protocols, and no specific outcomes are implied.
Please contact Schrader Orthopedic and Stem Cell to set up an appointment to discuss these new options.