Where to See Dr. Tortland in Connecticut
Dr. Paul Tortland, DO provides comprehensive orthopedic evaluations for patients at his Glastonbury, CT office. The practice sees patients from Glastonbury, Hartford, West Hartford, Farmington, Simsbury, South Windsor, and other Connecticut and New England communities.
📍 59 Sycamore Street, Suite 301, Glastonbury, CT 06033 — Get directions
📞 (860) 430-2821
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What Are Cellular Biologics and Why Do the Terms Get Confusing?
Patients researching regenerative treatment options often run into a wall of near-identical-sounding terms — PRP, BMA, stem cells, orthobiologics — without a clear sense of what actually separates one from another. Understanding the difference matters, because these treatments are not interchangeable, and choosing the right one affects both cost and outcome.
How Does PRP Work?
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) comes from a patient's own blood. A small sample is drawn and spun in a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets, which carry growth factors that help calm inflammation and support tissue repair. It's the most studied and most widely used orthobiologic treatment, and for good reason: it's simple to prepare, well-tolerated, and has a large and growing evidence base spanning joints, tendons, and ligaments.
How Does BMA Work, and How Is It Different from PRP?
Bone marrow aspirate stem cell treatment (BMA) starts from a different material entirely. It's drawn from a patient's own bone marrow — typically the pelvis — and concentrated to isolate a mix of cells and growth factors, including mesenchymal stem cells. BMAC is a more involved procedure than PRP, generally requires more specialized equipment and expertise to harvest and process correctly, and is often reserved for more advanced or stubborn cases where a simpler PRP injection is less likely to be sufficient.
Neither treatment is a stem cell that "turns into new cartilage," despite how they're sometimes marketed. Their primary role is modulating the local inflammatory and healing environment, not manufacturing new tissue from scratch — an important distinction for setting realistic expectations.
What Does the Research Show When BMA and PRP Are Compared Directly?
One of the more informative studies is a randomized controlled trial comparing BMAC, PRP, and hyaluronic acid injections in patients with knee osteoarthritis, following 175 patients for 12 months. All three treatments were safe, with no serious side effects reported. BMAC showed statistically better outcomes than the other two on multiple pain and function scores at 12 months; PRP outperformed hyaluronic acid numerically, though not to a statistically significant degree.
Should I Choose BMA or PRP?
In practical terms: BMA may offer an edge for appropriately selected patients, particularly those with more advanced arthritis, but it's also a more involved and typically more expensive procedure. PRP remains an excellent, well-supported first step for many patients, especially those with mild to moderate disease. Choosing between them isn't about which sounds more advanced — it's about matching the right tool to the joint, the diagnosis, and the patient's goals, which is a conversation best had with imaging and a full history in hand, not a menu of injections.
Are PRP and BMA the Same as Stem Cell Therapy?
They're related but not identical. BMA contains a mix of cells and growth factors, including mesenchymal stem cells, while PRP is purely concentrated platelets from blood, with no stem cell component at all. Neither is a purified, lab-expanded stem cell product, which distinguishes them from some of the more aggressively marketed "stem cell" therapies advertised outside the realm of same-day, same-patient orthobiologic procedures.
For a deeper look at PRP specifically for knee osteoarthritis, see our guide to PRP treatment for knee osteoarthritis.
Limitations: What This Comparison Does Not Tell You
Neither BMAC nor PRP regenerates new cartilage, and the comparison above describes group-level trial results, not a guarantee for any individual knee.
- BMAC outperformed PRP and hyaluronic acid on multiple scores in the cited trial, but it is also a more involved and typically more expensive procedure, and a better average result does not mean every patient will do better with BMAC.
- The trial followed patients for 12 months; longer-term comparative data are more limited.
- Choosing between BMAC and PRP depends on diagnosis, arthritis severity, and goals — factors this article cannot evaluate for an individual reader.
- Neither treatment is appropriate for advanced bone-on-bone arthritis or a joint that needs structural repair.
Dr. Tortland's Perspective
"Patients often come in already having decided which treatment they want based on something they read online, and my job is usually to slow that down," says Dr. Tortland, who added platelet-rich plasma to his practice in 2007 and bone marrow aspirate concentrate the following year, among the earliest physicians in the country to offer both. "The best orthobiologics in the world are worthless without a proper diagnosis — that's not a slogan, it's the actual sequence. I need to see the joint on ultrasound, understand how much cartilage is left, and understand what this patient actually wants to get back to, before BMAC versus PRP is even a meaningful question." In practice, he says, patients often assume the more involved, more expensive procedure must be the better one — "but that's not how the evidence works. For a lot of people with mild-to-moderate arthritis, a well-prepared PRP injection does the job, and BMAC doesn't buy them anything extra. It's a tool for a specific situation, not a universal upgrade."
Reference
According to PubMed: Dulic O, Rasovic P, Lalic I, Kecojevic V, Gavrilovic G, Abazovic D, Maric D, Miskulin M, Bumbasirevic M. Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate versus Platelet Rich Plasma or Hyaluronic Acid for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis. Medicina (Kaunas). 2021. DOI: 10.3390/medicina57111193
