Stem cell lumbar puncture therapy shows 'promising' safety resultsRSS Feed

16 February 2010

A lumbar puncture treatment in which patients' own stem cells are injected into their spines has shown encouraging safety results, it is claimed.

The XCell-Center reported its findings after completing a safety follow-up of 870 patients who received the treatment for various conditions, including spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy.

In the procedure, bone marrow is collected from the hip bone using a thin needle and the stem cells are separated from the bone marrow before being injected into the spinal fluid.

The clinic said headaches and backaches were the most common side effects, occurring in one in five patients, with leg pain and nausea reported by one in ten, although 98 per cent of patients said their side effects subsided in less than ten days.

"We've concluded that lumbar puncture is a safe and non-invasive procedure by which to inject stem cells into a patient's intrathecal space (spinal fluid)," said Dr Johannes de Munter, director of research and development at XCell-Center.

The XCell-Center, which operates clinics in Dusseldorf and Cologne, is the first privately-owned clinic in Europe to specialise in regenerative medicine using autologous bone marrow stem cell therapy.

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