Spinal Disc Transplant Shows Promise Against Back Pain

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Another reason for being careful is that "there is not much information about where the patients came from, why they had surgery and where the transplanted specimens came from," Hartl said.

In addition, "it is hard to imagine now that this will become standard treatment for people who have degenerative disc disease because of the problem of donation," Hartl said.

Green disagreed on that point. "Every hospital in the United States uses cadaver bones for spinal surgery," he said. "So the real question is what the results are."

It's too early to tell, Green said. "I don't think we're anywhere near ready to start doing it routinely because of the fact that a lot of important details have to be worked out."

The Chinese researchers pointed out some of those details, noting that "improvements in the area of graft preservation, repopulation of the allograft [transplant] with living cells and surgical techniques" are needed before disc transplants could be recommended for standard use.

More information

There's more on spinal treatments at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.