You've been told a hip replacement is next, and you don't want it. The medical team at Hospital Angeles in Tijuana, 25 to 30 minutes from San Diego, reviews your imaging, reports and symptoms, then says plainly whether cell therapy fits your hip. If it doesn't, we say so.
A patient coordinator typically calls within 1 business day. About 15 minutes, no cost, no obligation.
Medically reviewed by the physician team at Hospital Angeles · June 2026
Fluoroscopy, every hip
The hip joint sits deep under muscle. The needle is confirmed on a live X-ray with contrast before any cells are released.
1 day, then home
Over the border and back, most patients home the same day. Check-ins after that are calls, not return trips.
Hip replacement is framed as inevitable once the X-ray shows enough wear. Sometimes that is accurate. Often it is not: an arthritic hip is rarely the only thing wrong. The gluteal tendons, capsule, and stabilizers around it are strained too, and we treat the whole joint. Four profiles, starting with the one we turn away.
Not a fit
Avascular necrosis (bone death from lost blood supply) once the femoral head has collapsed, or severe dysplasia (a socket that never formed properly). Both need surgical reconstruction, and we say so before any quote.
A frank conversation
Kellgren-Lawrence grade IV, with bone loss beneath the cartilage. A lower expected response than a moderate hip. If you want to delay a replacement, we will still consider you, case by case, after an honest forecast.
Also a fit
Degenerative labral tears, femoroacetabular impingement (FAI, where the ball and socket pinch), and hips that never settled after arthroscopy, once PRP or cortisone has stopped holding.
Strong fit
The profile we accept most often: cartilage loss without collapse of the femoral head (the ball of the joint), and joint space still visible on the X-ray.
Send whatever imaging and reports you hold; not every hip needs an MRI to start. Your case decides, not a sales team.
The hip is the deepest joint we treat. It sits under layers of muscle, so a needle cannot be placed reliably by feel. Every hip injection here runs under fluoroscopy (a live X-ray), with contrast confirming the needle inside the joint capsule before any cells are released.
Bone-marrow and umbilical-cord MSCs (mesenchymal stem cells), often together, sometimes with chondrocytes (cartilage cells) for cartilage support. Allogeneic (from a screened donor; no harvest procedure for you), grown in the on-site cGMP-compliant lab at Hospital Angeles, released after 6 lab tests: sterility, identity, viability, potency, endotoxin, mycoplasma. Re-checked alive the morning you are treated.
Into the joint space, and into the gluteal tendons, capsule, and stabilizers that often drive the pain. Each placement is confirmed on the live X-ray before release. If the team needs a scan you do not have, imaging is in the same building.
Local anesthetic, with twilight sedation available if you want it, and Dr. Rocio Ambrosio Nuño, anesthesiology, in the room. No general anesthesia. A still patient lets the physician place the full dose. Expect soreness at the site for 24 to 72 hours.
Dr. Cesar Amescua, Medical Director, and Dr. Alejandro Castillo, interventional radiology, decide which cells, what dose, and which routes from your imaging. The first days bring soreness. Any change is measured over months.
A hip replacement and stem cells for the hip are not competing answers to the same hip. They are for different hips, and your imaging says which one you have.
A hip replacement
Stem cells for the hip
Bring your surgeon's recommendation to the call. If surgery is the right tool for your hip, that is what you will hear.
If you came here for a price, it is not on this page, and here is why: a clinic that quotes you one before reading your imaging is guessing. Three things set your number.
Which cells, and how many.
Set from your imaging, and re-checked alive the morning you are treated.
Treated in the same day.
Two hips, or a hip and a knee, means more physician time and a larger total dose.
Inside the quote.
1 treatment day. Then calls at 1 week, at 1, 3 and 6 months, and once a year after that. Not a plan you buy afterward.
Cell therapy is not FDA-approved for these uses in the United States and is not covered by US insurers; patients pay directly. HSA and FSA eligibility depends on your plan.
Most patients are home the same day. Work backward from there: about 4 hours at the hospital, 15 to 30 minutes of it on the table, a 25 to 30 minute drive from San Diego, and a call with a coordinator before any of it.
Reviewed first
Book a call and a patient coordinator typically calls within 1 business day, then gathers your imaging, reports, and symptoms. The physician team reads them before anyone quotes or books you. You get a written answer: candidate or not, and why.
Picked up
25 to 30 minutes from San Diego to Hospital Angeles, Tijuana, a 116-bed private hospital in the Angeles Health network. A Celva driver crosses the border with you. 1 or 2 companions can be with you in the suite all day.
Treated
Imaging on site if a scan is missing, the hip examined in person if that would change the plan, then the injection under live fluoroscopy, under local anesthetic, with twilight sedation available if you want it. Almost every joint and spine patient also receives a systemic IV the same day.
Home
A companion is welcome, never required: the Celva driver takes you home. Stay off the hip with very limited activity for the first 7 to 10 days, then physical therapy. Check-ins happen by phone or video, so this is the only trip unless a follow-up review says a second treatment makes sense.
"The other doctors told me that after physical therapy, if that didn't work for me, they only suggested surgery."Kathie M., 67 · Knee pain, from her interview
Five real Celva patients, in their own words. No scripts. Individual results vary.
A patient coordinator typically calls within 1 business day, then the physician team reviews your case and you get a written answer. Candidate or not. No pitch either way. Have your imaging or reports ready, and any quote another clinic gave you.
These therapies are not FDA-approved. Treatments are performed in Mexico by licensed physicians in a hospital setting. Individual results may vary. Not medical advice.
