What is nStride Injection Therapy?

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Mr Rohit Jain explains more on nStride and its effectiveness in treating knee osteoarthritis.   

A treatment gap currently exists when considering solutions for osteoarthritic pain. There are only a few well researched and clinically proven treatment options between conservative care and the more invasive implant solutions that can relieve the patient’s pain and potentially delay the need for an implant surgery.

The nStride injection is a novel therapy to treat pain and slow the progression of cartilage degradation and destruction in the knee.

What is nStride?

The nStride injection is used to treat knee osteoarthritis. It is made from blood extracted from your own body and has many anabolic growth factors; special proteins involved in healing processes of the body and anti-inflammatory proteins that suppress inflammation in your knee joints. The nStride output contains the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-1ra, sIL-1R, sTNF-RI, and sTNF-RII in concentrations well above what is found in native whole blood.

How does the nStride injection work?

The nStride injection has a high concentration of anti-inflammatory cytokines and anabolic growth factors that help to heal the damaged cartilage cells and provide relief from osteoarthritis pain. It also prevents further cartilage destruction by reversing the effects of the inflammatory proteins in osteoarthritis affected knee joints.

Procedure

A blood sample is drawn from your arm, which is then spun to separate the plasma, the liquid component of blood, from the solid components including the platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells. The plasma is then collected and further processed to obtain a concentrated level of anabolic growth factors and cytokines. The fortified plasma sample is then injected into the knee. This entire procedure may take around 20 – 30 minutes to complete.

Is it for me?

Research studies have shown that nStride significantly reduces pain associated with knee OA for up to 3 years. It significantly improves function in the knee joint associated with OA. It is found to be effective for patients with Kellgren and Lawrence stage 2 and 3 (mild to moderate OA) following a single injection.  A 70% improvement in knee pain has been reported at 3 years following a single injection. The injection of nStride is well tolerated and safe. It is prepared from your own blood so the chances of having an allergic reaction are almost none. It is suitable for all patients who do not desire to have any surgeries and the entire process of getting the injection is extremely fast.