title: The Current Perspectives of Stem Cell Therapy in Orthopedic Surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Musculoskeletal injuries may be painful, troublesome, life limiting and also one of the global health problems. There has been considerable amount of interest during the past two decades to stem cells and tissue engineering techniques in orthopedic surgery, especially to manage special and compulsive injuries within the musculoskeletal system.
  
  
  METHODS
  The aim of this study was to present a literature review regarding the most recent progress in stem cell procedures and current indications in orthopedics clinical care practice. The Medline and PubMed library databases were searched for the articles related with stem cell procedures in the field of orthopedic surgery and additionally the reference list of each article was also included to provide a comprehensive evaluation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Various sources of stem cells have been studied for orthopedics clinical care practice. Stem cell therapy has successfully used for major orthopedic procedures in terms of bone-joint injuries (fractures-bone defects, nonunion, and spinal injuries), osteoarthritis-cartilage defects, ligament-tendon injuries, femoral head osteonecrosis and osteogenesis imperfecta. Stem cells have also used in bone tissue engineering in combining with the scaffolds and provided faster and better healing of tissues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Large amounts of preclinical studies have been made of stem cells and there is an increasing interest to perform these studies within the human population but preclinical studies are insufficient; therefore, much more and efficient studies should be conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of stem cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Gulhane Military Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Serkan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akpancar
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Air Force Academy Kasımpaşa Military Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Oner
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tatar
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Bursa Military Hospital, Bursa, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Turgut
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Gulhane Military Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Faruk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Akyildiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Agri Military Hospital, Agri, Turkey.
authors.forename: Safak
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ekinci
keywords: Adipose Derived Stem Cells; Bone Marrow Derived Stem Cells; Mesenchymal Stem Cells; Orthopedic Surgery; Stem Cells