Stem Cells for Spinal Cord Injury

The Hindu, January 11, 2008

A 38-year old woman has been treated for spinal cord injuries using stem cell therapy. K G Hospital treated and cured a heart patient with stem cell therapy previous to the woman's treatment as well.

On Friday, Dr. G. Bhaktavasalam, Chairman, K G Hospital, told reporters that after a road accident, the woman suffered paralysis below the neck and lost movement in her limbs due to spinal cord injury.

With a fracture of the neck bone, she was diagnosed with a “cervical cord injury” after an X-ray, CT Scan, and MRI.

At the Nichi-in Center for Regenerative Medicine in Chennai, bone marrow cells extracted from the patient were processed and expanded. Then they were flown back to K G Hospital and used in treatment.

The woman is now recovering in ICU after having the surgery performed yesterday said Bhaktavasalam.

The neck bones were stabilized using metal plate screws, and the bone marrow cells were injected into the spinal cord with the cervical cord already exposed.

There was no immune rejection risk because they cells were derived from the patient.

Bhaktavatsalam claimed that if the treatment would have been available in 1995, the time when Hollywood actor Christopher Reeve had the same type of spinal injury, he could have been saved with the transplantation treatment.