MARKETPLACE: Osteoarthritis Centers of America
Knee relief
April 29, 2012 12:15 am • By Kathy Day
A new medical clinic that opened in March in Carlsbad is offering a program its physicians say can help people avoid knee replacement surgery.
Osteoarthritis Centers of America, at 1281 Carlsbad Village Drive, is the latest of the company’s facilities and the first in San Diego County administering its Intra Articular Joint Program. The centers also treat degenerative joint disease and other musculoskeletal and pain-related conditions of the knee, hips, shoulder and back.
CEO Justin Calapp, who was in Carlsbad recently helping to open the clinic, said it serves as an alternative to surgery.
“We owe it to our population,” he said, noting that most of the people they see are over 50, have osteoarthritis and are looking for a way to avoid surgery. Some have already had one knee replaced, “and say they wouldn’t go through the pain again.”
Developed over the past 10 years by physicians and physical therapists, the program uses hyaluronic acid injections combined with physical therapy and knee bracing to achieve maximum success, Calapp said. As described on the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ website, osteoarthritis is “wear-and-tear arthritis” in which the normally occurring hyaluronic acid, which acts as a lubricant in the joints, is lacking in the joint.
So with injections of Supartz, which Calapp called “the purest form” of the medicine, which is extracted from rooster combs, the knee joint gets a new source of the fluid. (They have a synthetic alternative for anyone allergic to poultry, which he says is rare.)
The protocol is generally a series of injections combined with rehabilitation.
Bracing is also part of the regimen to help stabilize and protect the knee. The centers use braces manufactured by Vista-based VQ OrthoCare, which Calapp said are the only ones approved by the FDA for degenerative joint diseases.
“We get our best results in five to eight weeks,” said the CEO, who holds a Ph.D. in organizational psychology. His investment group, MotionMed.com, franchised the OsteoArthritis Center concept and is working with U.S. Physical Therapy Inc., the franchisor, to roll out several clinics across the country.
Six more clinics are planned in San Diego County, including one in Rancho Bernardo, he added.
Acknowledging that the treatment “is not revolutionary, just good practice,” Calapp said it has shown an 87 percent success rate nationwide.
What is unusual with OA’s centers, he added, is that they have integrated two disciplines ---- medicine and physical therapy ---- that Calapp says historically have come from divergent philosophical approaches to health care.
Each clinic has a physician on site. In Carlsbad, it is Dr. Kenneth Kroll, M.D., who owns and manages the local operation. He coordinates with a licensed registered physical therapist who works in the same office.
They also have X-raying on site and fluoroscopy, which Kroll uses for a live image while he places in the needle in the joint space. Calapp said that is significantly more accurate than an injection without the image.
“We hope anyone with osteoarthritis will try our program to help them avoid surgery and return them to the freedom of movement they once had,” he said.
Reach the Carlsbad Osteoarthritis Center of America at 760-585-9567 or go to www.oacenters.com.