Stem Cell Treatment For Spinal Cord Injuries

Now that I have shared a brief overview of the spinal cord and some statistics about spinal cord injuries, we will look at the past research that has led to the treatments most commonly used today. In 1990, a steroid called dexamethasone was discovered in human trials to preserve some motor and sensory function if administered at high doses within 8 hours of injury. Surgery used to remove fluid, tissue, or bone fragments, or to stabilize fractured vertebrae by fusing bones or inserting hardware has also proven to be one of the most thorough measures to prevent further harm. I received both of these treatments after my accident, and they are the same that have been used for the past decade. Until recently, doctors had no way of limiting such disabilities, aside from stabilizing the cord to prevent added destruction, treating infections, and prescribing rehabilitative therapy to maximize any remaining capabilities.

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A Spinal Cord Injury is damage to any part of the Spinal Cord nerves at the end of the Spinal Canal. Every Year, 17,000 Spinal Cord Injuries are reported in the USA alone. The Most Frequent age for Spinal Cord Injuries is 19. Almost 200 Spinal Cord Injuries were reported for High School Football. People who suffer from SCI (Spinal Cord injuries) can experience muscle weakness, poor coordination, and overactive reflexes.There is many

Although the physiology and function is somewhat different in rodents and human spinal cords there are many biological functions that are conserved in vertebrate animals (2). In many spinal cord injuries, rat models are employed to study cell death, inflammation, and regeneration (2). In surgical modeling, recapitulating the physiology is important to insure surgical techniques can be employed across species. Non-human primates contain spinal cords that are more like humans due to closer evolutionary distance (3). Using both model organisms can help to answer questions on the cellular level as well as the macroscopic concept of

The limited space within the vertebrae actually plays an important roll in spinal cord injury. Once the initial injury occurs the body, as with every other part of the body, tries to protect the injured area with swelling. But the swelling occurs within the small confines of the spinal column and causes further damage to the surrounding tissue. It has only recently been discovered how much of an impact this secondary damage has. One of the areas of crucial ongoing research is on what kind of window of opportunity medicine has in treating these types of injuries and still attaining the best recovery.

According to the World Health Organisation, around the world, between 250,000 and 500,000 people suffer from spinal cord injuries. People living with these spinal cord injuries are said to be 40% more likely to die prematurely than those who do not suffer from these particular injuries. One possible treatment that can be applied is the use of embryonic stem cells to help treat patients with spinal cord injuries. Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs), as their name suggest, are derived from the inner cell mass from an early stage, pre-implantation embryo, known as a blastocyst, from eggs which have been fertilized via in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Once consent has been given by the host, these pluripotent stem cells are then cultured and donated for research purposes. The Human Embryonic Stem Cells, (hESCs) serve a multitude of purposes, ranging from growing synthetic organisms, treating degenerative disease and also repairing damaged tissue. The omnipotence of hESCs allows them to have the potential to successfully treat spinal cord injuries by stimulation spinal cord neuronal regeneration. This method could be applied to save many patients lives as well as provide social and economic benefits. Consequently, however, the use of hESCs provides a highly controversial debate. Whilst this method may alleviate financial burdens of living with spinal cord injuries, the use of hESCs also arises many ethical issues concerning their use. Also, alternative solutions such

Brain and spinal injuries are very serious conditions due to the ability to change or stop certain body functions permanently. One can be born with brain damage in which case the brain cells have been killed off. Spinal damage on the other hand can occur at any point in a lifetime. There are many different consequences to getting these injuries such as muscle failure.

In the article “Stem Cell Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury” Neil H Riordan discusses that adult stem cells can treat spinal cord injuries. The spinal cord is a tube like structure that runs from the base of the skull to the end of the spine. If this is injured, it may cause loss of muscle movement, muscle control, sensation and body system control.This is usually caused by motor vehicle accidents, bad falls or sporting accident that fracture and crush the vertebrae. People can cope with their disabilities by going through physical therapy; however, spinal cord injury can be treated with allogeneic human umbilical cord tissue-derived stem cells and autologous bone marrow-derived stem cells. Treatment such as this can be done by injecting a total

There are four main phases of spinal shock. They are Hyporeflexia that is due to loss of descending facilitation which is the first phase that last for approximately a day. The second phase initial reflex returns and denervation super sensitivity which occurs within 1-3 days of the spinal shock (Silver, 1970). The third phase takes up to four weeks it’s the initial Hyperreflexia with axon-supported synapse growth. The last phase is the Hyperreflexia and spasticity through

Spinal immobilisation is intended to limit movement in an attempt to avoid making an injury worse (Johnson et al., 2016). A Cochrane systematic review of spinal immobilisation literature was conducted to investigate the effect of spinal immobilisation procedures (Johnson et al., 2016; Dixon et al., 2015; Kwan, Bunn & Roberts, 2009). The review found that the effect of immobilisation of spinal injuries was uncertain and also that no randomised controlled trials of spinal immobilisation procedures on trauma patients had been conducted (Dixon et al., 2015; Johnson et al., 2016). Two important methods of spinal immobilisation are through manual stabilisation or through the use of equipment that restricts movement. A few examples of immobilisation

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A review of the literature regarding spinal immobilisation has been undertaken using databases for PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, OVID and Cochrane EBM. Reviews were electronically searched using the subject headings “spinal injuries”, “spinal immobilisation” and “management of spinal injuries”. The results generated by the search were limited to English language articles and reviewed for relevance to the topic. The aim of this literature review is to compare and contrast the views on spinal immobilisation and to achieve a better knowledge of evidence based practice.

The spine is a flexible column extending from neck to tail, made from a series of bones. The spine combines strong bones, unique joints, flexible ligaments and tendons, large muscles and highly sensitive nerves. The spine, also known as backbone or vertebral column, is made up of 33 individual bones termed vertebrae. The bony lumbar spine is designed so that vertebrae “stacked” together can provide a movable support structure while also protecting the spinal cord (nervous tissue that extends down the spinal column from the brain) from injury. Each vertebra has a spinous process, a bony prominence behind the spinal cord, which shields the cord’s nervous tissue. They also have a strong bony “body” in front of the spinal cord to provide a platform suitable for weight bearing of all tissues above the buttocks. By the time a person becomes

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