Partial regeneration of the human hip via autologous bone marrow nucleated cell transfer: A case study

This is a case report of a 64-year-old white male with a 20 year history of unilateral hip pain that had become debilitating over the last several years. On intake, Harris hip score was rated as: Pain subscale = 10, Function subscale = 32, Deformity subscale = 4, Motions subscale = 4.775 with a total score of 50.8 out of 100. MRI of the affected hip showed severe degeneration with spurring, decrease in joint space, and several large subchondral cysts. The patient had been evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon and told he was a candidate for bipolar hip replacement.

Two autologous nucleated cell collections were performed from bone marrow with subsequent isolation and transfers into the intra-articular hip using a hyaluronic acid and thrombin activated platelet rich plasma scaffold. Marrow samples were processed by centrifugation and lysis techniques to isolate nucleated cells.

This report describes partial by articular surface regeneration 8 weeks after intraarticular bone marrow transfer. Post-op 3.0T FGRE MRI showed neocortex formation when compared to immediate pre-op MRI and objective improvements were noted that coincided with subjective reports of improvement.