Tiger Woods is in the news for yet another scandal. This time, The New York Times has published a report linking him to a Canadian sports medicine doctor who administers banned substances to athletes in order to speed their recovery from surgery. According to the story, Mr. Woods’ sports agents at IMG referred him to this doctor after his knee was recovering too slowly from surgery in 2008.
To be fair to Mr. Woods, the article does not say that he took HGH or steroids, but rather a platelet derived growth factor, Actovegin, to help with ligament and tendon healing. Giving this product a drug name makes it seem more sinister than it actually is. Actovegin is simply bovine platelet-rich fluid made from centrifuged blood. The theory is to collect the growth factors known to speed healing found in platelets. Small centrifuge machines made for the operating room that spin the patient’s own blood are available in the U.S. now and sold by Johnson and Johnson as the Symphony device. Regranex is an actual drug containing Platelet Derived Growth Factor (PDGF), also sold by JNJ.
The HCC interviewed knee surgeon, Sharon Hame, MD, of UCLA, to discuss Tiger Woods specific type of knee surgery and his prospects for a full recovery and ability to beat Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors. The video may be viewed now.
The Healthcare Channel on http://thehcc.tv
No comments:
Post a Comment