Should people with serious spinal cord injuries attempt to find a surgeon who will transplant stem cells?
People with serious spinal cord injuries are understandably anxious and eager to find some treatment that will improve their condition. Does stem cell transplantation currently offer a realistic hope of improving the functional or pain levels of spinal cord injury survivors? The methods and results of the handful of surgeons in the world currently transplanting tissue into injured spinal cords have not been the subject of the kind of careful reporting and scrutiny by the medical and scientific communities that need to occur before reliable conclusions can be drawn. What is known is that a great deal remains to be learned about repairing an injured spinal cord. As with any surgery, transplantation surgery has potentially serious risks and complications. Furthermore, because surgery always creates scarring, it may be more difficult to perform surgery in the future – when the chances of a successful outcome are likely to be greater than they are today – in cases where a survivor has alrea
