Injection Could Help Regrow Spine, Reduce Back Pain
Published: 2009-12-03 04:52:32
Author: The Denver Channel | November 18, 2009
About 80 percent of Americans will experience low back pain at some point in their lives.
It's the second most common reason people visit their doctors. Often, these patients have torn or ruptured discs that cause excruciating pain. But there's a new option on the horizon that could regrow healthy discs in the spine without surgery.
Rebecca Tirs spends most days curled up in bed with her dog, Jenny Bee. But this isn't how life has always been for these two.
Ten years ago, Tirs was an active 28-year-old. But then she was in a rollover car accident, where she tore two discs in her low back.
"I had a mild traumatic brain injury. I had a fractured pelvis. I had fractured scapula, fractured ribs," she said.
Tirs can barely walk. She had to quit work and give up all her favorite activities.
"It was just constant, deep down to the bone, severe pain," Tirs said. "I cried all the time."
Dr. Michael DePalma is working on a new way to heal injured backs. As part of a clinical trial, he injects growth factors, found naturally in the body, into damaged discs.
"The growth factors are that, they stimulate growth of certain tissue," said DePalma, the medical director at the VCU Spine Center in Richmond, Va.
The injection includes a growth factor called OP1, a key ingredient in the development of bone and tissue. In animals, the shot helped damaged discs grow back. Doctors say in humans, it could mean no surgery, no damage to surrounding tissue and little downtime.
"This sort of treatment may find its role in treating the disc before they get to a point beyond which only surgery is going to help," DePalma said.
Tirs doesn't know if she received a placebo or the real injection, but she noticed a slight improvement in her pain level.
"Instead of maybe an eight or a nine, I was a seven," she said.
She said every bit helps -- if it gets her one step closer to her old, vibrant self.
Researchers are still working to see if one injection is enough to ease the pain. Eligible patients have suffered lower back pain for three to six months despite physical therapy and medication.
BACKGROUND: Intervertebral discs, which form the cushions between the vertebrae of the spine and make up about a third of the spine's height, degenerate earlier than any other connective tissue in the body. When a disc degenerates, it loses height and affects the mechanics of the entire spine, possibly negatively affecting surrounding muscles and ligaments.
A major cause of back pain, research shows pain from disc degeneration affects 12 to 35 percent of the Western world, according to the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.
"Back pain is common, and the most common source of back pain is a disc," said Michael DePalma, M.D., an interventional spine specialists at VCU Spine Center in Richmond, Va..
Full story
Published: 2009-12-03 04:52:32
Author: The Denver Channel | November 18, 2009
About 80 percent of Americans will experience low back pain at some point in their lives.
It's the second most common reason people visit their doctors. Often, these patients have torn or ruptured discs that cause excruciating pain. But there's a new option on the horizon that could regrow healthy discs in the spine without surgery.
Rebecca Tirs spends most days curled up in bed with her dog, Jenny Bee. But this isn't how life has always been for these two.
Ten years ago, Tirs was an active 28-year-old. But then she was in a rollover car accident, where she tore two discs in her low back.
"I had a mild traumatic brain injury. I had a fractured pelvis. I had fractured scapula, fractured ribs," she said.
Tirs can barely walk. She had to quit work and give up all her favorite activities.
"It was just constant, deep down to the bone, severe pain," Tirs said. "I cried all the time."
Dr. Michael DePalma is working on a new way to heal injured backs. As part of a clinical trial, he injects growth factors, found naturally in the body, into damaged discs.
"The growth factors are that, they stimulate growth of certain tissue," said DePalma, the medical director at the VCU Spine Center in Richmond, Va.
The injection includes a growth factor called OP1, a key ingredient in the development of bone and tissue. In animals, the shot helped damaged discs grow back. Doctors say in humans, it could mean no surgery, no damage to surrounding tissue and little downtime.
"This sort of treatment may find its role in treating the disc before they get to a point beyond which only surgery is going to help," DePalma said.
Tirs doesn't know if she received a placebo or the real injection, but she noticed a slight improvement in her pain level.
"Instead of maybe an eight or a nine, I was a seven," she said.
She said every bit helps -- if it gets her one step closer to her old, vibrant self.
Researchers are still working to see if one injection is enough to ease the pain. Eligible patients have suffered lower back pain for three to six months despite physical therapy and medication.
BACKGROUND: Intervertebral discs, which form the cushions between the vertebrae of the spine and make up about a third of the spine's height, degenerate earlier than any other connective tissue in the body. When a disc degenerates, it loses height and affects the mechanics of the entire spine, possibly negatively affecting surrounding muscles and ligaments.
A major cause of back pain, research shows pain from disc degeneration affects 12 to 35 percent of the Western world, according to the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.
"Back pain is common, and the most common source of back pain is a disc," said Michael DePalma, M.D., an interventional spine specialists at VCU Spine Center in Richmond, Va..
Full story