How to check knee treatment claims

Ask for the exact treatment and a plain answer

Platelet-rich plasma is care made from a portion of blood drawn from you. Plasma is the liquid in blood, and platelets are tiny parts that help clotting. Staff spin the blood, collect a portion with more platelets, and place it into the knee joint.

Here, preparation means how the blood was spun and which blood parts were kept. Ask the clinic to explain that work. Then get the likely benefit, how many weeks or months it might last, the main risks, and the next choice if this care doesn’t help. Official language can’t replace those answers.

Ask why the choice fits your soreness

After examining the knee, the QC Kinetix medical team may offer regenerative treatments, its broad term for non-surgical care prepared from blood drawn from you. The team consists of licensed clinic staff who perform the exam and treatment.

Ask what they found and whether older X-rays matter. Care that suits one knee may make little sense for another. The clinic needs to explain why its suggestion fits the soreness and what you want to do. A Google review won’t answer that personal question.

Get the cost and follow-up in writing

Get the exam price and ask what the treatment charge covers. Have the clinic check the named care with your insurer, and make your own call as well. Request written details about blood handling, later visits, and whom to contact if the knee worsens.

If you live far away, ask where an urgent problem would be checked. Don’t let one quoted price hurry an unclear choice. You can take the written answers home and think before agreeing.

Evidence sources

1. FDA states verbatim: 'None of these products have been approved for the treatment of any orthopedic condition, such as osteoarthritis, tendonitis, disc disease, tennis elbow, back pain, hip pain, knee pain, neck pain, or shoulder pain.' The only FDA-approved stem cell products in the United States are blood-forming (hematopoietic progenitor) cells derived from umbilical cord blood, approved only for disorders of blood production. There are currently NO FDA-approved exosome products.

   U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Consumer Alert on Regenerative Medicine Products Including Stem Cells and Exosomes. FDA (Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research), 2020.

2. In January 2025 the FTC and the Georgia Attorney General obtained federal court orders permanently BANNING the co-founders of the Stem Cell Institute of America and related companies from marketing stem cell therapy, plus $5,155,146 in civil penalties and consumer refunds. The court found on summary judgment that the defendants published false and misleading advertisements about the efficacy and approval of stem cell injections for conditions including osteoarthritis; the affiliated clinic had charged up to $5,000 per injection, almost exclusively to elderly and disabled consumers.

   Federal Trade Commission — Stem Cell Institute Co-Founders and Companies Banned from Marketing Stem Cell Treatments and Ordered to Pay More Than $5.1 Million for Refunds and Civil Penalties. FTC Press Release, 2025.

3. An analysis of internet-based marketing found widespread direct-to-consumer promotion of unapproved stem cell interventions by businesses based in the United States — previously assumed to be a phenomenon of countries with lax medical regulation — and concluded regulators must better oversee this marketplace.

   Turner L, Knoepfler P. — Selling Stem Cells in the USA: Assessing the Direct-to-Consumer Industry.. Cell Stem Cell, 2016.

4. A cross-sectional study contacted 273 of 317 US centres offering direct-to-consumer stem-cell therapy, posing as a 57-year-old man with knee OA. The mean advertised price of a unilateral same-day stem-cell knee injection was $5,156 (SD $2,446), and centres claimed a mean clinical efficacy of 82% (SD 9.6%) — a figure with no support in the published evidence.

   Piuzzi NS, Ng M, Chughtai M, et al. — The Stem-Cell Market for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Patient Perspective.. Journal of Knee Surgery, 2018.

5. A JBJS systematic review screened 420 papers on intra-articular cellular therapy for knee OA and cartilage defects and found only SIX studies at Level III evidence or higher (4 Level II, 2 Level III), covering 300 knees, with wide variation in cell source, cell characterisation, adjuvant therapy and outcome assessment — meaning no consensus exists on indications, cell sources, preparation or delivery.

   Chahla J, Piuzzi NS, Mitchell JJ, et al. — Intra-Articular Cellular Therapy for Osteoarthritis and Focal Cartilage Defects of the Knee: A Systematic Review of the Literature and Study Quality Analysis.. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American), 2016.

6. Medicare's national coverage policy states that CMS covers autologous platelet-rich plasma ONLY for patients with chronic non-healing diabetic, pressure and/or venous wounds, and only within an approved coverage-with-evidence-development clinical study. There is no Medicare national coverage for PRP in knee osteoarthritis, which is why these injections are billed to the patient as cash-pay.

   Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — Autologous Platelet-rich Plasma (Coverage with Evidence Development). CMS.gov, 2024.

7. The AAOS third-edition non-arthroplasty knee OA guideline contains 29 recommendations covering non-pharmacologic and pharmacologic treatment and procedures less invasive than arthroplasty. Its work group explicitly flagged intra-articular corticosteroid, hyaluronic acid AND platelet-rich plasma as areas where better research is still needed — including osteoarthritis characterisation, severity stratification, bias-controlled outcomes and cost-effectiveness.

   Brophy RH, Fillingham YA. — AAOS Clinical Practice Guideline Summary: Management of Osteoarthritis of the Knee (Nonarthroplasty), Third Edition.. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2022.