Florida Injury Lawyer Blog
Each year, Davie car accidents, falls, and other accidents lead to severe spinal cord injuries. Severe spinal cord injuries are among the most devastating injuries that victims can sustain in Davie truck accidents, slip and falls, and other accidents. Some Davie spinal cord injury patients are never able to walk again or resume everyday activities. Some face a lifetime of reduced mobility and pain. Research in recent years, however, has been providing some hope for these injury patients. A new study is especially promising for these patients.
Researchers at VA San Diego Healthcare and the University of California, San Diego have successfully used a stem cell get to help heal axonal growth in rats with severe spinal cord injuries. The gel was applied to the injured part of the spinal cord in rats. In rats with a completely severed spinal cord, axons regenerated from the injured area at a rate 200-fold higher than anything previously documented. The axons regenerated ten times longer than in any other documented study. The treatment process took six weeks.
According to researchers, the gel works because early stage neurons can live on and extend axons. This allows them to create new neuronal relays in an injured central nervous system. Based on this understanding, researchers created a gel which had neural stem cells within a matrix of protein that is commonly used in neuron procedures.
According to Mark Tuszynski, professor in the UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences, who headed the research, the rats who were given the gel not only showed significant axon regeneration, but the rats also improved functionally. Researchers also found that cells above the injured area regenerated after use of the gel, creating new relay circuits. In practical terms, with six weeks of treatment the rats showed significant improvement. Without treatment, rats with severed spinal cords were ranked 1.5 on a 21-point walking scale. After the stem cell gel therapy, rats ranked 7 on the same scale. In most cases, the rats were able to use all joints in legs affected by the spinal cord injury.
In the future, this research may help Davie spinal cord injury patients recover more mobility following an injury. While new advances are made in research all the time, however, current patients may still face long waits in rehabilitation and current treatments in order to start to regain mobility. Currently, many patients find that getting the best medical treatment often results from getting knowledgeable about spinal cord injury treatments and getting resources in order to secure that treatment. For this reason, many patients who have been injured due to a traffic accident seek the help of a Davie personal injury attorney in order to get the fairest compensation possible. Spinal cord injuries are among the most expensive injuries in terms of care and treatment, so speaking with an experienced Davie attorney is often important in order to ascertain all options.
If you have sustained a spinal cord injury in Davie, contact the Flaxman Law Group today to schedule a free, no obligation consultation to discuss your injury and your options. You may have more options than you realize.