RIT for Foot & Ankle Pain

BY GREER BANKS

I hate to hear that foot pain is keeping someone from their everyday life,” says Dr. Kerry Zang, podiatric medical director of CiC Foot & Ankle. Just because you’re on your feet all day or are getting older, doesn’t mean your feet should hurt. Another big reason why people live with chronic foot pain, is because they didn’t get relief from prior treatment and are not aware that there may be other options.

“The thing that excites me most about being a doctor is finding new ways to help my patients. Regenerative medicine is the latest answer,” says Zang. “It doesn’t matter if you are suffering from arthritis, an old injury, Achilles tendonitis, heel pain or plantar fasciitis, pain after surgery, the list goes on and on. Regenerative medicine may be able to help.”

Regenerative injection therapy (RIT) uses growth factors to help repair and restore tissue, ligaments, and joints. Until recently, anti-inflammatory medication and steroid injections, like cortisone offered the best chance for relief. But, these options just reduced the symptoms. “While cortisone stops the swelling and pain, it can also interfere with the healing process and more damage can occur,” explains Zang. ago. Cortisone injections, physical therapy and pain medications did not help. He needed to wear a brace because his ankle was unstable and painful. “I couldn’t recommend additional surgery because while it may have addressed his ankle problem, I believe it would have just transferred the pain further up his leg, and most likely affect his knee,” says Zang. “I felt his best option was a growth factor injection.”

Now, doctors are able to deal with the underlying problem that is causing the pain. RIT helps the body initiate its own healing response, where the body replaces, repairs, reprograms and renews diseased or injured cells. “Sometimes the body just needs a little boost to encourage the regenerative process. The growth factors in RIT do that,” says Zang.

A recent patient of Dr. Zang’s has seen wonderful results from RIT.

A patient had been suffering from ankle pain after an injury and surgery three years

Dr. Zang recognized that the patient was skeptical, and explained, “I’ve seen excellent results with ongoing pain after prior surgeries, and believed he had on opportunity to benefit as well. I advised him it could take a bit of time, but it may offer the relief he needed.” A few months after the injection, the patient noticed the pain was nearly gone. Soon after, he realized, “I [haven’t] noticed any pain…this is an unbelievable outcome so far, and I thought this could never happen. The shot works!”

Dr. Kerry Zang, a Diplomate of the American Board of Foot & Surgery, is the Podiatric Medical Director at CIC Foot & Ankle and can be reached at (602) 954-0777 or azfeet.com.