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Bangalore: A
multi-specialty hospital here has successfully used stem cells to
cure a hip joint disorder, relieving affected patients from
expensive surgery and conservative treatment.
"We have so far treated seven patients, including two non-resident
Indians (NRIs) suffering from hip joint disorder using their stem
cells and helped them to resume normal life within months," Live
100 Hospital chairman H.N. Nagaraj told IANS here.
Known medically as avascular necrosis, the uncommon disease leads
to temporary or permanent loss of blood supply to hip joint bone
and causes disorder. If not treated early, the dislocation of the
hip bone with joint surface can result in disability. Any serious
injury, medications such as steroids, blood coagulation or
excessive alcohol can cause blood loss.
"Stem cell therapy has been used for the first time in the world
to treat the hip bone disorder by rejuvenating its tissues with
the bone marrow of the patient. Stem cells in the marrow of the
affected bone are separated from red blood cells and blood plasma
through a clinical process and injected into the hip joint of the
patient," Nagaraj said, demonstrating a case study.
The private hospital on the city's outskirts has tied up with a
Pune-based laboratory to harvest the stem cells and transplant
them through four injections over four weeks to restore the hip
joint function lost due to damage to its cartilage. The stem cells
also repair bone cells as they can differentiate between bone and
cartilage cells.
"The novel treatment has no bleeding or scar formation as the
process does not involve surgery. The patient has to visit our
hospital for a day in a week for each of the four injections,"
Nagaraj said.
Though the treatment costs a patient Rs.350,000 currently, the
hospital hopes to bring it down over time when awareness of the
stem cell therapy spreads and more patients opt for the treatment.
The hospital will soon submit the therapy treatment protocol for
publication in the Journal of Mass & Heat Transfer in the United
States and Britain and file for international patent and
intellectual property rights.
Among the patients cured at the hospital are two NRIs from the
United States - Jayadeep Panduranga, 37, and Aishwariya, 18, who
could not get relief from shooting pain due to hip disorder
despite years of conventional treatment like core decompression.
"Though I underwent core decompression for nine years in
California, there was no relief. Stem cell therapy has reduced
pain and hip movements are almost normal," Panduranga told IANS.
Similarly, Aishwariya, an under-graduate in Detroit, suffered pain
in the right hip and faced difficulty in moving around.
"I'm able to walk again with a walker," Aishwariya said.
(Fakir Balaji can be contacted at fakir.b@ians.in)
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