Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Apr 26, 2022; 14(4): 303-309
Published online Apr 26, 2022. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v14.i4.303
Treatment of syringomyelia using uncultured umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells: A case report and review of literature
Hyunjun Ahn, Sang Yeon Lee, Won-Ju Jung, Kye-Ho Lee
Hyunjun Ahn, Sang Yeon Lee, Kye-Ho Lee, Stem Cell Treatment and Research Institute (STRI), bio Beauty and Health Company (bBHC), Seoul 04420, South Korea
Won-Ju Jung, Stem Cell Treatment, 97.7 Beauty and Health Clinic, Seoul 04420, South Korea
Author contributions: Ahn H, Lee SY, Jung WJ, and Lee KH designed the report; Ahn H and Jung WJ collected the patient’s clinical data; Ahn H, Lee SY, and Jung WJ analyzed the data; Ahn H wrote the manuscript; Lee KH provided professional advice and revised the manuscript; All authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: The patient involved in this study gave her written informed consent authorizing disclosure of her protected health information.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Kye-Ho Lee, PhD, Stem Cell Treatment and Research Institute (STRI), bio Beauty and Health Company (bBHC), No. 72 UN Village-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 04420, South Korea. khlee@stc365.com
Received: December 13, 2021
Peer-review started: December 13, 2021
First decision: January 30, 2022
Revised: February 28, 2022
Accepted: March 26, 2022
Article in press: March 26, 2022
Published online: April 26, 2022
Abstract
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.

Keywords: Syringomyelia, Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells, Cell therapy, Allogenic stem cells, Chiari malformations, Case report

Core Tip: Syringomyelia has no suitable treatment other than surgical methods, but these methods carry the possibility of failure, recurrence, and side effects. In this study, we treated a patient with syringomyelia using uncultured umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells. This method could be a new treatment alternative for syringomyelia.