Chennai Friday 11th January 2008

Spinal cord injury treatment through Stem Cell therapy

Coimbatore (PTI): After curing a heart patient through stem cell therapy, a city hospital has treated a 38-year old woman of spinal cord injuries using the same system.

The woman had sustained a spinal cord injury, following a road accident, resulting in paralysis below the neck, without any movement in the limbs, Dr G Bhaktavasalam, Chairman, K G Hospital, told reporters here on Friday.

After performing MRI, CT Scan and X-ray, she was diagnosed to have 'cervical cord injury' with a fracture of the neck bone, he said.

Bone marrow stem cells were processed from the patient and were separated at Nichi-in Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Chennai and flown back to the hospital,he said.

The surgery was performed yesterday and the woman recovering in the ICU, he said.

The cervical cord was already exposed and the bone marrow stem cells were injected into the spinal cord and the neck bones were stabilised using metal plate screws.

The cells taken from the patient had shown that there was no immunological rejection,he said.

Hollywood Actor Christopher Reeve had same type of ailment in 1995 and if the stem cell transplantation treatment would have been available at that time, he could have been saved, Bhaktavatsalam claimed.