A Breakthrough for Spinal Injury Patients
Last year, medical teams from Poland and the UK collaborated on a new surgical cell transplant allowing 40-year-old Darek Fidyka to walk again. The new procedure gives hope to millions of physically impaired people around the world for whom spinal injuries have been a lifelong sentence of paralysis.
Fidyka was considered paralyzed from the waist down in 2010 after he was attacked with a knife, which severed his spinal cord.
According to the doctors who performed the surgery, olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) were removed from the patient’s nose and grown in a culture. Next, the OECs were transplanted into the spinal cord with about 100 micro-injections above and below the injury. Surgeons also used nerve tissue from the patient’s ankle to reinforce the spinal cord. The OECs provided a new pathway for fibers above and below the injury to reconnect and for communication to be reestablished.
Paralyzed Man Walks Again (Image Courtesy www.bbc.com)
The following video shows Darek Fidyka’s journey from being paralyzed to walking again.
