Spinal cord injury treatment in India

NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute commenced on 17th December 2008. From treating around 150 patients in the initial year we have steadily reached a point to where we treat approximately 250 patients in a month. We have not only expanded from a small facility to an 11 storey building, in a beautiful, homely, locality, but also grown in terms of manpower and resources. We began as a team of 6 professionals in the year 2008 but have now expanded to a larger family consisting of almost 200 inhouse and outsourced employees. The entire set up of the hospital has been designed to be patient centric.

In the past donated organs were transplanted to replace the diseased or failed organs in the recipients. Soon the number of recipients exceeded the number of donated. To overcome this demand, cell therapy offered the possibility of replacement of the damaged cells of tissue with new cells. Stem cell infusion helps to treat a plethora of conditions including cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, intellectual disability, and other neurodegenerative syndromes as well.

Stem cells have the potential to develop into different cells of the tissues (of the body) and the ability of self-renewal. When serving as a repair system, the stem cells divide without limit as long as the person is alive. As they divide, they remain as stem cells or develop into cells with more specialized functions, like a brain cell or a muscle cell.

Stem cells, from different sources, have three common properties: They can grow into specialized cell types such as nerve cells, muscle cells, and blood cells.

Impairments linked to neuromuscular conditions are usually irreversible due to inadequate cell regeneration or impaired cells in the central nervous system. It was observed that the cellular characteristics of autologous stem cells had the capability of treating major neurological disorders without incurring any side effects. With their neurotrophic properties, self-renewal & differentiation capacity, and immune modulation effects, the bone marrow-derived stem cells are considered as a promising candidate for treating disorders related to the nervous system.

For cell treatment, bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells are isolated from the marrow tissue (extracted from the patient’s hip bone) in an expedited, painless and safe way. By centrifugation procedure, a sufficient number of stem cells are separated from the unwanted tissue within a few hours. These injectable stem cells are infused intrathecally into the spinal area or the damaged muscle points, as per the need of the patients.

These bone marrow-derived stem cells have many useful properties that lead to great clinical improvement in post-cell-based therapy. According to various clinical trials, treatment with bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells have shown improvement in patients with traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and other neurological disorders through axonal sprouting and remyelination, potential to replace/protect the damaged neurons/cells, and neovascularization.

How do the infused stem cells act? Once infused into the body,

– The infused stem cells journey toward the nervous system and blend into the neural circuits to mend or improve the disrupted synaptic transmission.
– Post infusion, improved neuropathological condition, upregulated Aß clearance and reduced deposition is detected within a short period.
– The infused stem cells reduce neuroinflammation and provide protective immunomodulatory effect.
– The stem cells secrete neurotrophic influence and nerve growth factors, bringing cognitive and memory improvement in patients.

Apart from encouraging effects, renewed brain plasticity is also observed in patients following intrathecal delivery of stem cells. With the new medical breakthrough in stem cell therapy, the treatment has become a highly sought-after curative. To know about the treatment efficacy, one must understand the efficiency of stem cells in terms of engraftment, migration, cytokines and growth factors. However, cell-based therapy is a promising contribution to regenerative medicine and has gained considerable clinical attention. Read extra info on NeuroGen Hospital.

Many specialists recommend starting physical therapy as early as possible to prevent future complications like contractures-a shortening of muscles and tendons that can be painful and is common in spastic cerebral palsy. Strength training exercises are also helpful for children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy who have loose muscles and may experience atrophy. Occupational therapy helps children with cerebral palsy improve fine motor skills. In general, physical therapy is used to improve gross motor function, but it doesn’t focus on fine motor function. People with cerebral palsy struggle with coordinating these skills for tasks such as grasping a spoon and bringing it to their mouth. But occupational therapists often work with physical and speech therapists to build a complete therapy plan.

A few advices to help your child with autism: The earlier children with autism spectrum disorder get help, the greater their chance of treatment success. Early intervention is the most effective way to speed up your child’s development and reduce the symptoms of autism over the lifespan. Learn about autism. The more you know about autism spectrum disorder, the better equipped you’ll be to make informed decisions for your child. Educate yourself about the treatment options, ask questions, and participate in all treatment decisions. Become an expert on your child. Figure out what triggers your kid’s challenging or disruptive behaviors and what elicits a positive response. What does your child find stressful or frightening? Calming? Uncomfortable? Enjoyable? If you understand what affects your child, you’ll be better at troubleshooting problems and preventing or modifying situations that cause difficulties.

What’s the long-term outlook? Some people lead full and productive lives after a spinal cord injury. However, there are severe potential effects of a spinal cord injury. The vast majority of people will need assistive devices such as walkers or wheelchairs to deal with loss of mobility, and some may even be paralyzed from the neck down. You may need assistance with daily living activities and learn to perform tasks differently. Pressure sores and urinary tract infections are common complications. You also may expect to undergo intense rehabilitation treatment for your spinal cord injury.

Stem cells are those cells that can develop into any type of cells, such as liver, muscle, blood or other cells with specific functionality. Basically, stem cells are the basic cells of the human body, the “bricks” that make up life. They create our organs, tissues, blood and our immune system. Interestingly, however, most cells in our body can only give birth to cells of the same type (for example, blood cells produce blood cells, epidermal cells produce more skin cells, etc.). Stem cells, on the other hand, are unique cells that can give rise to several types of cells (a stem cell can create blood, kidney, heart or bones).

Prolonged inactivity of limbs, may result in severe spasticity leading to permanent deformities. These may eventually need surgical correction. These symptoms may arise especially at the joints resulting in bent wrist, closed fist, flexed elbow. These may or may not straighten when forcefully tried. Poor feeding could result in malnourishment, which leads to a poor immunity, and low body weight. Poor neck control leads to swallowing difficulties in children with cerebral palsy. Often, the food taken orally may enter the larynx and trachea(windpipe), instead of the pharynx and oesophagus(food pipe). This could also be a common cause of recurrent pneumonia and other respiratory infections in cerebral palsy kids. Such cases of cerebral palsy could need eventual ventilatory support. See extra details Stem Cell Treatment For Cerebral Palsy.