Treatment of syringomyelia using uncultured umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells: A case report and review of literature

BACKGROUND

Syringomyelia is a disease caused by the formation of a cavity inside the spinal cord and is accompanied by such symptoms as pain, paresthesia, and urination and defecation disorders, and in severe cases causes various paralyses. Currently, there are only surgical methods for the treatment of syringomyelia, but these methods carry the possibility of failure, recurrence, and side effects.

CASE SUMMARY

The patient was a 59-year-old woman who suffered from pain due to syringomyelia. For treatment, the patient received transplant of uncultured umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells. As intended, the patient's pain was relieved after treatment. Interestingly, an additional benefit was found in that the size of the cavity also decreased. After 2 years from the last treatment, the patient's cavity had almost completely disappeared and her syringomyelia was deemed cured.

CONCLUSION

Using uncultured umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells may be a new treatment alternative for syringomyelia.

Late Complications of Allogenic Stem Cells Transplantation in Leukaemia

BACKGROUND

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) can cure leukaemia. However, long term complications of post transplantation interfere with the patients' full recovery. The objective of this review was to identify the various long term complications and to assess their individual prevalences.

METHODS

Electronic databases including PubMed, Google Scholar and Cochrane were searched for years 2004-2017. The keywords used were leukaemia, allogenic stem cell transplantation, prevalence, side effects, long term, delayed, adverse effects, complications and outcome.

RESULTS

A total of ten articles were included for analysis. There were 5 prospective studies, 3 retrospective studies and 2 cross sectional studies. A total of 40,069 patients, (20,189 males and 17,191 females) participated in these 10 studies. The gender of 2689 patients were not disclosed. Most common late complications and prevalence were chronic graft versus host disease (43% at 5 years post HSCT), secondary tumor (21% at 20 years post HSCT), hypothyroidism (11% at 15 years), bronchiolitis obliterans (9.7% at 122 days), cardiovascular disease (7.5% at 15 years) and avascular necrosis (5.4% at 10 years). The prevalence of azoospermia was 71.1% and depression, 18%. For the latter two conditions no time limit was available. Follow up duration ranged from 2 years till 30 years post HSCT.

CONCLUSION

While allogenic stem cell transplantation is an effective cure for leukaemia, the procedure is associated with complications that can have their onset many years after the procedure.