#fotoder#A team of doctors at the Montecelo hospital in Pontevedra have carried out the first stem cell surgery in Spain to treat patients with Crohn's disease combined with complex perianal fistula.
Crohn's disease affects over a million people in the European Union, and perianal fistulas are one of the most debilitating complications of the disease. It is estimated that for every 100,000 inhabitants of Galicia there are 250 people suffering from Crohn's disease.
The health authorities in Pontevedra have proudly announced the "leading role" their staff have assumed in this field and emphasised the importance of the investigative project - the fruit of "interdisciplinary work" that has been carried out since June 2012 with "continuous coordination" between specialists in the digestive system, general surgery, pharmacy and radiology.
The initiative is a joint project with the Japanese biopharmaceutical company Takeda, which signed a risk-sharing agreement with the Ministry of Health to finance the application of this stem cell therapy in the National Health System.
In a pioneering project, 11 patients suffering from Crohn's and perianal fistulas were included in an experimental stem cell treatment programme. In five of those cases the treatment was successful, in three cases it was partially successful and the remaning three patients are still under observation.
"These are encouraging results for the quality of life of patients with this intestinal pathology", highlighted the medical team.
This new stem cell surgical treatment, carried out on Friday in Montecelo for the first time ever in Spain "offers a new and minimally invasive alternative" for patients who do not respond to the treatments "currently available" and who, up until now, have "few treatment options".
The project leaders emphasised the fact that the colorectal surgical team at Montecelo are "highly qualifiied" to carry out "the most innovative" techniques, with "a high proportion" of surgery being carried out vía laparoscopy. They also underlined the importance of collaborating with the pharmaceutical team, who played a "key" role in the cultivation and distribution of the cells, a process requiring precise monitoring and conservation immediately prior to surgical implantation in the patient.
