Autologous Bone Marrow Stem Cell Therapy Shows Functional Improvement in Hemorrhagic Stroke.

ABSTRACT

In hemorrhagic stroke, damage to the brain tissue is inevitable and no effective treatment for functional improvement is currently available except neurorehabilitation. Stem cell therapy is a rapidly growing field and has recently opened new avenues for brain repair strategies. We present a case study of a 69-year-old female treated with stem cell therapy for right-sided hemiplegia caused due to left thalamic hemorrhagic stroke. Inspite of regular physiotherapy, the patient had constant residual neurodeficit, one year after the stroke, which was severely incapacitating. In view of the same, the patient was given intrathecal autologous bone marrow derived stem cell therapy as part of the neuroregeneration and rehabilitation therapy (NRRT) along with rehabilitation. After the therapy, patient showed functional as well as neurological improvements (cognition and motor strength) without any side effects. There is accumulating experimental data showing the benefits of cell transplantation on functional recovery after hemorrhagic stroke. This case study supports the concept of neuroregeneration with bone marrow stem cells as a novel strategy having great therapeutic potential. However, large clinical studies are needed to further investigate autologous bone marrow stem cell therapy in addition to neurorehabilitation for treating the disability in hemorrhagic stroke.