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CHANDLER TEEN HAS FIRST AZ STEM-CELL SPINAL OPERATION
Arizona Daily Star/ West
Chandler teen has first AZ stem-cell spinal operation
By Mary K. Reinhart - East Valley Tribune
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.15.2007
MESA ‚ Matthew Baremore woke up Tuesday morning, finished his book report on a Tom Clancy novel, and prepared to make medical history. The 14-year-old Chandler boy, who has scoliosis, became the first in the state to undergo spinal fusion surgery using a concentrated cocktail of his own stem cells and donated bone.
The stem-cell technology speeds healing and helps Matthew's body to grow new bone along his curving spine. It also averts the need for a second procedure to harvest a piece of Matthew's bone‚¦
During the four-hour operation at Banner Desert Children's Hospital, Dr. Mark Flood, a pediatric spine surgeon, harvested bone marrow from the teen's pelvic bones. Stem cells were extracted from the marrow using centrifuge technology patented by a firm in Austin, Texas.
Flood straightened and bolstered Matthew's spine with a series of rods and pins ‚ a typical surgical treatment for severe scoliosis. Then the surgeon combined Matthew's own stem cells, which had been concentrated to pack about 10 times more cells than the traditional method, with crushed bone from the hospital bone bank.
He injected the puttylike mixture into the upper-middle section of Matthew's spine, between the rods, where the mixture will grow into bone and protect the spine against further curvature.
"What's revolutionary is the use of the concentrated stem cells," Flood said before the surgery. "We can avoid the pain of taking bone, and increase fusion."
To read the complete article:
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/216362