Health: New Treatment For Injuries, Joint Pain

By Stephanie Stahl

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Treating injuries with a new kind of implant that enhances the body's natural healing process.  It's an alternative to surgery that's just arrived in South Jersey.

Carolyn Polino stays in shape with regular workouts, but over the years, her left shoulder ended up in constant pain.  "It really did impact my life a great deal. I couldn't even lift my hand this way," she said.

It's a common problem. Tendons in the rotator cuff thin and tear when people are active and with age. Carolyn says,  "It progressively just got worse where I was losing sleep at night. I couldn't sleep the pain was getting so bad."

With traditional rotator cuff surgery, there's often a long and painful recovery. Carolyn found an alternative with Dr. Sean McMillan at Lourdes Health System.  He's  among the first in the area to use a new bio-inductive patch.  "This is a minimally invasive technique to place a patch over top of an injured rotator cuff and allow the body to heal over top of it. It actually induces your body to lay down new tendon over previously worn tendon to make it stronger," Dr. McMillan explains. Dr. McMillan with says during surgery, the patch is stapled into place, and as the new tendon grows, it gradually dissolves.   Dr. McMillan says it's, "Quicker and easier on patients, less recovery, less pain."

Carolyn, who's a 4th grade special-ed teacher in South Jersey, was relieved to be able to work out again just weeks after the surgery, and excited to be one of the first patients to get the new patch.  Carolyn says,  "I think it's wonderful. It's helped me a great deal and I hope that it's used all the time now so it can help others."

The patch, that's made from the Achilles tendon of a cow, is FDA approved, and could eventually be used to treat other tendon problems.

http://www.drseanmcmillan.com/