The therapy, which is the first in the world, was carried out in Poland by Polish doctors from the Wroclaw University Hospital's neurosurgery department, in collaboration with a team of London scientists led by Professor Geoff Raisman, a neuroscientist at University College London's Institute of Neurology.
Forty-year-old patient Darek Fidyka was repeatedly stabbed in the back in 2010, which led to muscle paralysis below his chest. Before the treatment, he had been paralyzed for nearly two years and showed no signs of recovery, despite many months of intensive physiotherapy. After the therapy, he is able to walk with the help of a walker.
The treatment used olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), a kind of specialist cell that forms part of the sense of smell and which enable nerve fibers in the olfactory system to be continually renewed. Surgeons removed one of the olfactory bulbs and grew the cells in a culture and two weeks later, transplanted the OECs into Fidyka's spinal cord.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
