Objective demonstration of improvement of neurogenic bowel dysfunction in a case of spinal cord injury following stem cell therapy

Abstract

Constipation in spinal cord injury patients is a frequent complication that leads to a reduction of quality of life, extensive psychological and economic strain on patients and healthcare systems. We report a 58-year-old man with an incomplete SCI secondary to L1 vertebral fracture, presented gait disorder with neurogenic bowel and bladder dysfunction. He received 300 million autologous mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) in the subarachnoid space by lumbar puncture. After the third administration of MSC the patient had an important improvement in almost every functional scale of spinal cord injury, especially in the Krogh's Neurogenic Bowel Dysfunction scale. Our present observation supports recent clinical findings about the benefit of autologous stem cell therapy for the improvement of bowel dysfunction in patients suffering spinal cord injury.