The famous Italian surgeon Roberto Brambilla, together with orthopedic traumatologists of the St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital of the First Medical Association of Lviv, successfully administered stem cells to three Ukrainian children with limb mobility disorders.
Interventions with the implantation of stem cells are one of the world’s leading methods of regenerative medicine. And recently, it was used for the first time in our hospital. This modern method of treatment is a chance for small patients with burn injuries and other pathologies to increase mobility in their limbs.
One of the first three patients is 17-year-old Bozhena from the Lviv region. The girl was born with fusion of the radius and ulna bones, due to which the palm of her left hand was turned forward. This created discomfort and prevented Bozhena from being independent in everyday life. A year ago, a team of orthopedic traumatologists at St. Nicholas Hospital corrected the girl’s pathology. And now it’s time to restore the full activity of the limb, because after a complex operation, new cells were formed in it too slowly. To speed up Bozhena’s recovery, Roberto Brambilla, head of regenerative medicine at one of the hospitals in Italy, suggested using a new method — the implantation of stem cells into the area of the hand that needs restoration.
The rare operation was performed in several stages. First, the surgeons removed adipose tissue from the patient’s femur using liposuction and separated the so-called mesenchymal stem cells from it. Then they were used in the previously operated area of the hand. Stem cells are quite effective in such cases, because they have the ability to transform into any other type of cells, which in turn speeds up the process of hand tissue recovery. For Bozhena, this operation is extremely important. After the death of her mother, the girl was raised by her grandmother alone. And now, Bozhena strives to become a support for the closest person.
Doctors performed the other two interventions on children with post-burn and trauma pathologies. These little patients are also looking forward to faster improvements in limb mobility.
By the way, regenerative medicine is one of the most modern directions in the world for the treatment of deep wounds and damaged tissues, as it allows them to be restored without particularly complex surgical interventions.