Patients suffering from chronic low back pain account for nearly 60 percent of prescription opioid usage in the United States.
“As the rate of opioid addiction increases, patients are seeking alternative treatment options that will relieve their pain and disability, and enable them to avoid back surgery,” said Vincent DeBono, DC, CSCS, dean of the College of Chiropractic at Logan University in Missouri.
A possible answer
Regenerative medicines that use the body to heal damaged muscles, tissues, and ligaments are one such option. There are currently no regenerative cell-based therapies on the market deemed safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with back pain. However, there are several being investigated in regulator-allowed clinical trials across the country.
“At SPIRITT Research, we are participating in an FDA-allowed, prospective, randomized, double-blinded clinical trial of a therapy that utilizes cells originating from adult human intervertebral disc tissue to treat the root cause of degenerative disc disease,” said orthopedic surgeon Matthew F. Gornet, M.D. “If proven effective, cell-based therapies like this could have a significant impact on the way patients with chronic low back pain are treated.”