Treatment of Cerebral Palsy with Stem Cells: A Report of 17 Cases

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a disabling condition that affects a child's life and his/her family irreversibly. It is usually a non-progressive condition but improvement over time is rarely seen. The condition can be due to prenatal hypoxia, metabolic, genetic, infectious, traumatic or other causes. It is therefore a heterogeneous group that results in functional motor disability associated with different degrees of cognitive abnormalities. There are no treatments that can cure or even improve CP and the best available approach aims at functional, social and nutritional supportive care and counseling. In this paper, we report 17 sequential patients with CP treated with intrathecal administration of Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells (BMMC). All patients had an uneventful post-injection course with 73% of the evaluable patients treated having a good response using the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS). The average improvement was 1.3 levels on the GMFCS with cognitive improvements as well.

rare aetiology of myelopathy: Spinal dural arteriovenous fistula: Report of 6 cases

The authors describe 6 cases of spinal dural arteriovenous fistula [5 males and one female patient, with a mean age of 64 years [range 49 - 77 years]]. Four of the spinal arteriovenous fistulas were located at the thoracic level, one at the lumbar and one at the sacral level. Clinically, symptoms were divided between radiculopathy and myelopathy. Diagnosis was made using magnetic resonance imaging and confirmation attained with angiography, excluding one case which was incidentally found. A fistula between the radicular and the corresponding radicular vein within the dural sheath, at the level of the spinal root foramina, was visually confirmed intraoperatively and clipping of the fistula was done in 3 cases, whereas 3 fistulas were closed by endovascular embolization. All patients totally recovered with no neurological deficit/so Spinal dural arteriovenous fistulas are rare because of myelopathy but sometimes because of radiculopathy. Diagnosis is the key in prevention of irreversible neurological damage. Treatment consists of closure of fistula through clipping or embolization