- Title: HEALTH-PARALYSED MAN/POLAND Cell transplant helps paralysed man walk with frame
- Date: 22nd October 2014
- Summary: WROCLAW, POLAND (OCTOBER 22, 2014) (REUTERS) UNIVERSITY CLINICAL HOSPITAL IN WROCLAW HOSPITAL ENTRANCE (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) NEUROSURGEON WHO PERFORMED SURGERY PARTIALLY RESTORING MOVEMENT IN PARALYSED PATIENT, DOCTOR PAWEL TABAKOW, SAYING: "The procedure looks as follows: we extract the olfactory bulbs from the skull's basis by opening the patient's skull. Then in the laboratory we extract the glial cells from the bulbs and for approximately two weeks grow a cell culture. Then after uncovering the patient's spinal canal and cleaning the spinal cord of adhesions, the cells are transplanted into the place where the spinal cord was damaged. At the same time we fill the missing part of the cord with implants from patient's peripheral nerves. This is what all of the complicated transplant procedure looks like." NEWS CONFERENCE WITH PATIENT DARIUSZ FIDYKA (ON WHEELCHAIR) PRESENT (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) NEUROSURGEON WHO PERFORMED SURGERY PARTIALLY RESTORING MOVEMENT IN PARALYSED PATIENT, DOCTOR PAWEL TABAKOW, SAYING: "Above all we have to prove that the method is effective by getting the same results among a few more patients as it was effective with the first patient we operated on. Then we have to apply to initiate scientific research in more medical centres, where a number of medical centres around the world have to use the procedure. The results have to be confirmed by independent experts. As a consequence we would be able to apply for the method to be considered effective and enlisted in the catalogue of known safe and effective medical procedures." PARALYSED PATIENT WHO UNDERWENT SURGERY PARTIALLY RESTORING MOVEMENT, DARIUSZ FIDYKA, MANOEUVRING WHEELCHAIR IN CORRIDOR SCREEN WITH FILM OF FIDYKA UNDERGOING REHABILITATION (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) PARALYSED PATIENT WHO UNDERWENT SURGERY PARTIALLY RESTORING MOVEMENT, DARIUSZ FIDYKA, SAYING: "After the accident and before the surgery I was lacking any mobility. Spasticity and pain were immobilizing me. After the surgery, when the regeneration begun, I started to regain the ability to feel. And after that I regained functions like the ability to change seat on my own, take a bath or dress by myself." JOURNALISTS PHOTOGRAPH OF FIDYKA'S SPINAL CORD FIDYKA LISTENING TO TABAKOW FIDYKA
- Embargoed: 6th November 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Poland
- Country: Poland
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA8T9DQKPJG8JOTWGLZF8JCSV
- Story Text: A man who was paralysed from the chest down in a knife attack and can now walk with the aid of a frame after receiving pioneering transplant treatment using cells from his nose appeared at a news conference with doctors in Wroclaw on Wednesday (October 22).
The technique, described as a breakthrough by a study in the journal Cell Transplantation, involved transplanting what are known as olfactory ensheathing cells into the patient's spinal cord and constructing a "nerve bridge" between two stumps of the damaged spinal column.
"We extract the olfactory bulbs from the skull's basis by opening patient's skull. Then in the laboratory we extract the glial cells from the bulbs and for approximately two weeks grow a cell culture. Then after uncovering the patient's spinal canal and cleaning the spinal cord of adhesions, the cells are transplanted into the place where the spinal cord was damaged. In the same time we fill the missing part of the cord with implants from patient's peripheral nerves," explained Doctor Pawel Tabakow, who performed the surgery.
A UCL spinal injury specialist, worked with surgeons at Wroclaw University Hospital in Poland to remove one of Fidyka's olfactory bulbs, which give people their sense of smell, and transplant his olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) and olfactory nerve fibroblasts (ONFs) into the damaged area.
They used a nerve bridge constructed between the two stumps of the damage spinal column, they said in the study.
Doctor Tabakow said his team will apply for international tests of his method before it can be approved as a effective means of treatment.
"Above all we have to prove that the method is effective by getting the same results among few more patients as it was effective with the first patient we operated on. Then we have to apply to initiate scientific research in more medical centres, where a number of medical centres around world have to use the procedure. The results have to be confirmed by independent experts. As a consequence we would be able to apply for the method to be considered effective and enlisted in the catalogue of known safe and effective medical procedures," he said.
The 38-year-old patient, Darek Fidyka, was paralysed after suffering stab wounds to his back in 2010. Following 19 months of treatment, he has recovered some voluntary movement and some sensation in his legs, his medics said.
The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, a British-based charity which part-funded the research, said in statement that Fidyka was continuing to improve more than predicted, and was now able to drive and live more independently.
"After the accident and before the surgery I was lacking any mobility. Spasticity and pain were immobilizing me. After the surgery, when the regeneration begun, I started to regain the ability to feel. And after that I regained functions like the ability to change seat on my own, take a bath or dress by myself," Fidyka said about his treatment.
OECs are a type of cell found in both the peripheral and central nervous system. Together with ONFs, they make bundles of nerve fibres that run from the nasal mucosa to the olfactory bulb, where the sense of smell is located.
When the nerve fibres that carry smell become damaged, they are replaced by new nerve fibres which re-enter the olfactory bulbs, the researchers explained in their study.
OECs help this process by re-opening the surface of the bulbs for the new nerve fibres to enter -- leading the UCL team to believe transplanting OECs into the damaged spinal cord could enable severed nerve fibres to re-grow.
UCL added that the technique of bridging the spinal cord with nerve grafts from the patient had been used in animal studies for years, but never before in combination with OECs.
Experts not directly involved in the work said its results offered some new hope, but said more work needed to be done to figure out what had led to this success, and more patients treated, before its potential could be properly assessed.
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