Allograft may relieve pain, improve function in patients with degenerative disc disease
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Results of a study showed treatment of degenerative disc disease with nonsurgical injectable allograft may relieve pain and improve functional outcomes by 1 year postoperatively.
The substance injected was prepared from human nucleus pulposus allograft with reportedly allogeneic viable cells.
Douglas P. Beall, MD, and colleagues randomly assigned 24 patients with one- or two-level symptomatic degenerative disc disease to undergo treatment with the Via Disc Matrix allograft (Vivex Biologics Inc.), saline or nonsurgical management. Researchers then assessed back pain and disability with the VAS and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), respectively, as well as adverse events at baseline and at 3, 6 and 12 months postoperatively.
At 3 months, results showed patients in the nonsurgical management group had a VAS for back pain of 54 and an ODI of 62.75. Researchers noted all patients in the nonsurgical management group crossed over to the allograft treatment group.
At 6 months, researchers found the VAS for back pain improved from 54.81 to 16 in the allograft group, from 55.25 to 41 in the placebo group and from 62.25 to 6.67 in the nonsurgical management group. Similarly, results showed improvements in the ODI from 53.73 to 18.47 in the allograft group, from 49.25 to 28.75 in the saline group and from 55.75 to 19 in the nonsurgical management group at 6 months of follow-up.
Researchers found patients in the allograft, saline and nonsurgical groups had a VAS for back pain at 12 months of 12.27, 19.67 and 6, respectively. The ODI improved to 15.67 in the allograft group, to 9.33 in the saline group and to 11 in the nonsurgical management group at 12 months, according to the results.
“The trial showed an excellent safety profile in injecting painful lumbar intervertebral discs with cellular disc allograft tissue that supplements degenerated tissue in patients with painful degenerative disc disease,” Beall, of Clinical Radiology of Oklahoma, in Edmond, Oklahoma., told Orthopedics Today. “The profound improvement in pain and improvement in function seen in these patients shows great promise in using this cellular allograft material to treat the pain and discomfort associated with painful degenerative disc disease. There is a distinct possibility that this could replace surgery as a treatment for a large portion of patients suffering from stable discogenic back pain,” he said.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts