Safety and Efficacy of Autologous Bone Marrow Stem Cells in Treating Spinal Cord Injury

The projected data related to the burden of spinal cord injuries induced limb paralysis in India is quite alarming. This is attributed to the rapid industrialization and economical development in the country. Increase in vehicular traffic has caused numerous road traffic accidents. Rapid increase in populations, development in the computer technology and real estate business lead to construction of huge buildings which indirectly adds to the injuries due to fall. Spinal cord injuries could not be treated adequately with the prevailing treatment modalities. In view of this, there is definitely an urgent need for finding different methods of treatment for these patients who cannot undergo established modalities of treatment or these have been tried unsuccessfully. Since a large number of these patients will loose their productive life and at the prime of their lives, one such alternate therapy, which seems to offer some promise, is "stem cell" therapy, which has been well studied and published in prestigious journals. In our present study, we want to evaluate the safety and efficacy of autologous bone marrow derived stem cells surgically transplanted directly into the lesion site with glial scar resection for 8 indian patients of chronic spinal cord injury and intra-thecal injection for 4 indian patients of acute and subacute injury.