Hi, I am trying to find out info on stem cell treatment I am a adoptive nan for a little 3 year old that was in a MVA last year and has a T12 incomplete injury,he has taught himself to crawl and is under a great team at the childrens hospital in Brisbane Aust,but his mum has been in contact with a clinic claiming all these miricles by giving stem cells I am a nurse but new to this has any one had success or know of any patint that has had the stem cells done?
thank nan1

I haven't ever had any stem cell treatment myself but I have done alot of research on the subject. For the most part stem cell research is still just that RESEARCH... Although I have read a few articles and documents where some have seen minor improvements after many months even years of painful treatments involving numerous injections and hospital stays. I myself weighed out the pros and cons of the subject and I don't think it would be worth all of the lost time and all the troubles involved with treatment. The day the headline of the news paper states " Doctors Heal SCI's" will be the day I change my mind. I suggest you do a little more research for yourself and then decide on the subject.

Hope I was helpful,
Inkdonwheels

thanks I have done a fair bit of reserch and from what I am hearing it is possibly a con to get money($30000) from people that are willing to give anything a go.I guess I would serch for a treatment to the end of the world for my children too.
cheers

nan1

I've been over and over this lately, and we had some threads relating to it in the "SCI Cure and Treatment" section a while back. I've personally met and seen some of the results for 2 people from Dallas, TX, that have gone to Russia to have autologous repair cell injections. It is not a miracle cure, or a "have this done, and you can walk out in the morning" type of thing, but the improvements in bowel/bladder function alone are worth $30,000 to me. I'm saving up as it is to go as soon as possible to have autologous cell injection and olfactory mucosa autograft. Could be interesting to see what the 2 can do when used together.

What people need to realize is that it will always take a lot of work and physical therapy to obtain maximum results. The muscular atrophy, the rebuilding/reprogramming of neural pathways, the adjustment to the improvements, all take time and work. There is no miracle cure. As a nurse, I'm sure you're familiar with wounds. An SCI is in many cases a wound in the spinal cord. Regrowth will not be immediate. It's a healing process. Just be sure to remember that, no matter what "miracle cures" people may proclaim.

For more information ot the stem cell and other SCI cellular treatments, I have provided some links for you. One is to the Repair Stem Cell institute, a non-profit organization in the US that helps people get booked to go to these treatment centers. The next is the link to the PDF format file that includes the clinical study report from the initial trial of olfactory mucosa autograft. The final link is to the site of a man names David Granovsky. He's a stem cell blogger, who has been round the world and met many of the doctors who have had success with stem cells. There is a ton of information on his site. Hope this helps you.

JAX

Repair Stem Cell Institute

Olfactory Mucosa Autografts in Human SCI patients

Stem Cell Blogger

inkdonwheels, you might want to check out some of this too. As you say, do some research. I gotta say, the injections they do in Russia aren't that bad from the description I've gotten from the 2 patients I've met. Same as any lumbar puncture. Also, I don't know about you, but to me, the bowel/bladder/sexual function gains are nowhere near insignificant! I don't give a damn if I ever walk again, I think it would be a great thing just to get a hardon again (and to be able to feel it would be even better).

JAX was kind enough to mention my little blog so I've put together a collective article:

SPINAL CORD INJURY + STEM CELLS – A BRIEF HISTORY OF TREATMENT (23 plus articles)
http://repairstemcell.wordpress.com/2009/0...y-of-treatment/

There are also 9,750 scholarly papers under keywords "spinal cord injury" & "stem cell" on google. If you choose to slog through these, I would ignore ALL embryonic studies because the one, two punch of the tumor and rejection issues will not be resolved for a very long time. Only focus on the ADULT stem cells. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&am...amp;btnG=Search

All my best-
David