Features » Health and Beauty
NICE AND KNEESY!
Staff Reporter / 2010-05-05 14:17:30
Stem cell work in Murcia improves lives
A new technique used by Pedro Luis Ripoll and his team at the San Carlos Hospital in Murcia involving the auto-transplant of stem cells has proved successful for 40 patients at the hospital. Surgeons say the technique follows on from earlier success in hip operations performed in Murcia, and the Ruber Clinic in Madrid.
Ripoll, an eminent surgeon in Spain, says that he has operated on 20 men and 20 women aged between 32 and 64, and describes the process as ‘very simple.’ He quoted one example of a 74 year old man who damaged his knee in a fall, but who avoided the need for prosthesis by accepting the experimental technique in 2007. Since then his knee has been fine and painless.
He explained the technique by telling reporters how at first stem cells are extracted from the hip. The cells are then purified and intensifying chemicals are added before they are injected back into the knee of the patient. The whole process takes two hours and is done with an epidural anaesthetic meaning patients can leave after four days and start recovery exercises at home.
Early reports state that pain and incapacity was reduced in all the patients by as much as 80%.
Tags: Stem Cell, Operation
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