Stem Cell Treatment for Back Pain
Simple stem cell epidural, facet, and sometimes disc injection, combined with intravenous infusion, is safe and has shown efficacy in a majority of patients at a rate comparable to that of surgery but without the severe pain, complications, and long recovery that occur with surgery. There have been no adverse events outside of expected transient post-treatment discomfort.
Background:
Back pain is the second most common reason, after upper respiratory infection, that patients see doctors. Physical therapy should always be the first back pain treatment option, but if therapy fails good alternatives really do not exist. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs only mask pain and have a high incidence of bleeding ulcers, kidney failure, and other dangerous side effects. Epidural cortisone injections are designed for sciatic leg pain, not back pain, have relatively low efficacy, and when they do work, have a duration of effect of generally only a few months. And the side effects of Cortisone limit its use. Thus, patients with chronic pain are often forced into back surgery as a last resort. Back and neck surgery, however, have a high failure rate for back and neck pain, a high incidence of often serious complications, and when they fail there is often no way to salvage a good result and relieve pain.
Protocol:
Our medical director, Chad Prodromos MD, hypothesized that stem cells - which fight inflammation without side effects, promote healing, and are genetically programmed to seek damaged tissue - would likely be helpful for back and neck pain. Therefore our institute and research foundation set up a clinical trial in Antigua to treat patients with chronic resistant back and neck pain with a simple translaminar epidural injection, like the ones that women have when they have babies, combined with simple spinal facet injections. The cells are obtained from Vitro Biopharma in Golden, Colorado – the finest producer of stem cells in the world in Dr. Prodromos' opinion. These cells are FDA-approved for use in human patients unlike cells used in other centers. All patients are followed up by the FDA. There has never been a serious adverse event associated with their use.
Patients generally arrive on Friday, are treated on Saturday for the epidural and on Sunday for an intravenous infusion, and return home on Monday, for a total of three nights in Antigua. Hodges Bay Resort & Spa, where all patients and Dr. Prodromos stay, has a nurse on premises 24 hours/day, equipment for icing, walking assists as needed, a butler to assist, and a concierge for logistics. Mild soreness is easily managed with a motorized ice machine and Tylenol.
Stem Cell Injection Technique:
Although Dr. Prodromos is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon (bachelor’s from Princeton, MD from Johns Hopkins, fellowship at Harvard/Mass General), he recruited internationally renowned pain specialist Kenneth Candido MD, former chairman of anesthesia at Illinois Masonic Medical Center and professor of pain management at the University of Illinois, to perform the injections using fluoroscopic guidance. Together, Dr. Prodromos and Dr. Candido have treated over 60 patients in our clinical study, and recently submitted a paper for publication reporting the results for patients with a minimum of one year of follow-up. The results have been striking. Most patients achieved good pain relief beyond one year of follow-up, with success rates comparable to surgery. However, unlike surgery, there is minimal treatment discomfort, recovery typically occurs within a week, and there are no complications or serious adverse events. In the hands of Dr. Candido, the epidural injection usually takes under 5 minutes. The treatment is done with either local anesthetic or mild sedation. Mild soreness is easily managed with a motorized ice machine and Tylenol.
Results:
The results have been striking. Most patients achieved good pain relief beyond one year of follow-up with success rates comparable to surgery. However, unlike surgery, there is minimal treatment discomfort, recovery typically occurs within a week and has no complications or serious adverse events. The treatment is done with either local anesthetic or mild sedation. Patients generally arrive on Friday, are treated on Saturday for the epidural and on Sunday for an intravenous infusion, and return home on Monday, for a total of three nights in Antigua. Mild soreness is easily managed with a motorized ice machine and Tylenol.
In our study, we treated 8 patients with failed back surgery - a condition for which no good treatment has heretofore existed - of these, 7 patients achieved good and enduring relief of pain. Our results were equally good for arthritis or herniated discs. We also found that stem cells injected into the low back epidural space would seek out and treat pain in the neck. This is important because low back (lumbar) epidural injections are completely safe, whereas injecting the cells into the epidural space in the neck is more difficult. We thus never had to inject into the neck epidural space.
Stem Cell Injection as the Treatment of Choice:
We believe stem cell injection is the treatment of choice for chronic back and neck pain that is unresponsive to physical therapy. Stem cells derived from umbilical cords (not embryonic or fetal) fight inflammation and help tissue heal. When properly used, they are completely safe with no serious adverse events as reported in numerous studies and reviews. Unfortunately, due to strict FDA regulations, they are almost completely prohibited from use in the United States. For this reason, we’ve maintained a stem cell center in the beautiful Caribbean Island nation of Antigua for the past three years and recently opened a state-of-the-art stem cell center in Athens, Greece. However, this means that Medicare and insurance plans in the U.S. do not currently reimburse for this treatment. If you or someone you know is interested in pursuing treatment, please contact us at 847-699-6810 or email [email protected].