Miracle in bone grafts stem cell surgery
Published: April 6, 2006
DOCTORS have implanted adult stem cells into a patient’s broken leg in an Australian world-first experimental procedure they hope will replace painful bone grafts.
Jamie Stevens, 21, shattered his leg in a motorbike accident in June. After nine months of discomfort and inactivity, the break had not healed.
Last Friday, Royal Melbourne Hospital orthopaedics director Richard de Steiger inserted about 30 million of Mr Stevens’s stem cells into the cavity in his left thigh bone, coated on two pieces of “scaffolding” made of bone-like material.
The stem cells were harvested from his bone marrow during a biopsy about seven weeks earlier and cultured into bone-producing cells.
Doctors will have to wait six weeks before they know if the cells are likely to grow into new bone.
Dr de Steiger said he hoped the cavity in Mr Stevens’s bone would have completely filled after 16 weeks.
“Like any medical research it’s exciting, but it’s tempered by the fact you have to wait and see,” Dr de Steiger said.
Mr Stevens, of Ivanhoe, is the first of 10 patients who will undergo the procedure over the next 12 months at the hospital in a clinical trial.
He will be discharged from Royal Melbourne Hospital today on crutches and with his leg still swollen.
“It’s still quite sore but it’s better than it was,” Mr Stevens said yesterday. “I’m pretty happy to be the first one in the world.”
Dr de Steiger said long bone fractures failed to heal in about 10 per cent of cases, which usually led to a bone graft.
He said the treatment, developed by Australian firm Mesoblast Ltd, could reduce hospital stays and recovery time while reducing discomfort.
Using patients’ own stem cells eliminates the risk of rejection that can occur with cells from another donor.
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