Doctor uses stem cells to help heal back surgery patients

A new technique for back surgery uses stem cells to help speed healing and create strong bones. These aren't stem cells from embryos that have stirred up so much controversy, but rather, stem cells from the patient's own body.

Dr. Robert Johnson, an orthopedic surgeon at San Antonio's Methodist Hospital, is one of the first spine surgeons in Texas to use this new technique in the operating room.

For one 66-year-old patient, disc degeneration and arthritis have led to a narrowing of the spinal canal, which pushes on nerves and causes debilitating back and leg pain.

Johnson will fuse three vertebrae in the man's back, a surgery that will take several hours. Removing the stem cells to be used in the healing process only takes a matter of minutes.

Johnson withdraws bone marrow through a needle inserted into the patient's pelvis, taking out two large syringes full of the liquid. Then a technician loads the fluid into a centrifuge to spin out the stem cells. The stem cells are soaked into synthetic collagen pads — essentially a sponge — that will aid the bone graft.

"That little rectangle containing the stem cells will be placed into the patient's body, along with the fusion, so the two of them kind of get to know each other, and hopefully start making bone," Johnson said.

Stem cells have the potential to become any kind of cell — blood, nerve, or in this case, bone. The idea is to jump start the body into growing the bone graft.

"By introducing them into the area of the fusion, we're hoping that they will choose a career path of becoming a bone cell and creating bone, and sort of solidifying the fusion," Johnson said.

Johnson calls the technique simple and cost effective.

"It's using the body's own mechanisms to augment the fusion, which is nice," he said. "It's the patient's own blood, so we're not transfusing from another patient.

The fusion, which is held in place by screws and plates, will immobilize the lower portion of the spine and ease the patient's chronic pain.

Johnson has used this technique on about 30 people over the last three months. He is hopeful that the stem cells will provide a more reliable, consistent fusion, and spare patients future surgeries.