After a horrific motorcycle accident, Clive Randell was told repeatedly by doctors that his leg would have to be amputated, but a pioneering stem cell procedure avoided this.
Stem cells that are abundant in the bone marrow can be triggered into transforming into bone-forming cells by collagen. Bone marrow which contains a mixture of stem cells, red blood cells and blood-forming cells is drawn from the patient’s pelvis and the stem cells are separated by a centrifuge.
This concentrated stem cell mixture is then mixed with collagen ready for implantation by injection. The fracture is stabilized and the stem cell and collagen suspension are then injected into the fracture site and around the bone, guided by X-ray.
After surgery, the patient can partially weight bear with the load progressively increasing.
At present this technique results in less than half the healing time and a fraction of the cost of traditional treatments.