What should I ask before I pay?

What can the exam tell me?

Ask whether the soreness comes from the joint, a tendon, an injury, or a nearby area. Your old X-ray and notes may help.

The hands-on exam still matters because it shows which motion brings on the soreness. You can also ask how serious the wear looks.

That finding helps you weigh home relief, physical therapy, a clinic procedure, and surgery. It won’t make the choice for you.

QC Kinetix calls its examiner a medical provider, though that name doesn’t give the person’s title. Ask if the visit will be with a doctor, a nurse, or a differently trained clinic worker.

The provider can discuss non-surgical care without promising a set result. You’re welcome to ask when another kind of care would fit better.

What exactly am I paying for?

Have the clinic give you every charge on paper before you say yes. It’s fair to ask whether the price covers the procedure and follow-up.

Regenerative treatments are office treatments using material collected from your blood or bone marrow and placed at the sore joint. They may ease soreness or help movement.

Ask what the clinic will collect, how it gets the material ready, and who will provide the care. You can also ask what recovery may feel like.

Before paying, find out whom to call if you’re worried afterward. Please ask what happens if the soreness doesn’t improve enough.

Which warning signs mean I need quicker care?

A joint that is hot and swollen along with fever needs quick medical care. So does a bent joint after a hard injury.

Sudden weakness, new numbness, or being unable to put weight on the joint shouldn’t wait. A planned consultation isn’t the right visit for those signs.

After a procedure, fast-rising soreness, redness, warmth, or fever needs prompt attention. Please bring your medicine list to any later visit.

Tell the examiner about bleeding trouble or blood thinners before a procedure. Don’t stop a prescription unless the doctor who ordered it agrees.

Sources

1. The 2025 Cochrane review of stem cell injections for knee osteoarthritis pooled 25 randomised trials (1,341 participants) and found that, compared with placebo injection, stem cell injection MAY slightly improve pain (1.2 points better on a 0-10 scale, 7 studies, 445 participants) and function (14.2 points better on a 0-100 scale, 7 studies, 432 participants) up to six months - both rated LOW-certainty evidence, downgraded for indirectness (cell source, preparation and dose varied across studies) and suspected publication bias, since up to three larger RCTs were conducted and withdrawn before reporting results. Radiographic progression was not assessed in any included study.

   Whittle SL, et al. — Stem cell injections for osteoarthritis of the knee.. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2025. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD013342.pub2.

2. FDA states verbatim of stem cell products, stromal vascular fraction (adipose-derived cells), umbilical cord blood, Wharton's jelly, amniotic fluid and exosome products: '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, and 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.

3. The AAOS patient-education FAQ on orthobiologics states that because orthobiologics are relatively new the evidence supporting their use is LIMITED, that rigorous testing of effectiveness in most orthopedic conditions is lacking, and that preliminary results are encouraging but hard to evaluate. It names tendinopathies such as tennis elbow, pain from early knee osteoarthritis, adjunct healing after rotator cuff repair, and avascular necrosis as the settings where biologic therapies have shown promise, and notes that stem cell treatments not derived from the patient's own body and further manipulated in a laboratory can only be offered inside an FDA-approved clinical trial.

   American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons — Orthobiologics (Regenerative Medicine) FAQ. OrthoInfo (AAOS), 2024.

4. An analysis of internet-based marketing claims found widespread direct-to-consumer promotion of unapproved stem cell interventions by businesses based in the UNITED STATES - previously treated as a phenomenon of countries with lax medical regulation - and concluded that regulatory agencies 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. DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2016.06.007.

5. A 2026 systematic review of leukocyte-rich versus leukocyte-poor PRP for osteoarthritis concluded the current evidence is insufficient to determine whether adding leukocytes provides any clinical benefit, that results generally show no significant difference between the two, and that there is no conclusive evidence local reactions are caused by leukocytes specifically.

   Martin-Vega M, et al. — Leukocyte-rich versus leukocyte-poor platelet-rich plasma for Osteoarthritis: A systematic review.. Regenerative Therapy, 2026. DOI: 10.1016/j.reth.2026.101078.

6. The largest head-to-head trial of cell-based orthobiologics to date randomised 480 patients with KL II-IV knee OA across four arms: autologous bone marrow aspirate concentrate, autologous adipose stromal vascular fraction, allogeneic umbilical cord tissue-derived MSCs, and a corticosteroid injection control. At 12 months NONE of the three orthobiologic injections was superior to another or to the corticosteroid control on either co-primary endpoint (VAS pain, KOOS pain), and none of the four groups showed a significant change in MRI osteoarthritis score from baseline. No procedure-related serious adverse events were reported.

   Mautner K, et al. — Cell-based versus corticosteroid injections for knee pain in osteoarthritis: a randomized phase 3 trial.. Nature Medicine, 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02632-w.

7. RESTORE, the largest and most rigorously blinded placebo-controlled PRP trial in knee OA (n=288, participant-, injector- and assessor-blinded), gave three weekly injections of a commercial leukocyte-poor PRP or saline. At 12 months the change in knee pain was -2.1 vs -1.8 points (difference -0.4; 95% CI -0.9 to 0.2; P=.17) and the change in medial tibial cartilage volume was -1.4% vs -1.2% (difference -0.2%; P=.81). Twenty-nine of 31 prespecified secondary outcomes showed no between-group difference. The authors concluded the findings do not support the use of PRP for knee OA.

   Bennell KL, et al. — Effect of Intra-articular Platelet-Rich Plasma vs Placebo Injection on Pain and Medial Tibial Cartilage Volume in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: The RESTORE Randomized Clinical Trial.. JAMA, 2021. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2021.19415.