2020 FSA Posters

P066: A COMPARISON OF HEALTH OUTCOMES IN THE USE OF STEM CELLS, SURGICAL, AND NONSURGICAL APPROACHES TO TREAT DEGENERATIVE DISK DISEASE
Daniel Indorato; Florida International University

Study Design: Systematic literature review

Objective: The present study provided a systematic review of randomized controlled trials which assessed the therapeutic effects of stem cell treatments, surgical interventions, and non-surgical treatments on the outcomes of patients diagnoses with IDD.

Methods: A MEDLINE (2000–2017), PubMed (2000–2017), and Google scholar (1995-2000) database search was performed to identify published articles reporting on patient-reported clinical outcomes. Twelve total articles were identified and met the inclusion criteria.

Results: Literature evaluating the comparative treatment outcomes between patients who underwent surgical versus non-surgical interventions demonstrated mixed findings in treatment efficacy. While studies involving the manipulation of endogenous stem cells in fibrocartilage suggested that this application could be a potentially non-invasive, stem cell-based strategy to treat fibrocartilage degeneration, especially in patients with IDD.

Conclusions: The reviewed literature suggested that no clinical significance exists between surgical and non-surgical treatment for IDD. The decision to undergo surgical or conservative treatment should depend the patient’s state of health at the time of surgery, as well as any other potentially alarming factors (altered mental status, level of consciousness, comorbidities, etc) that could be exacerbated with the proposed treatment. MSC and FCSCs may also be an effective therapeutic option for the regeneration of a degenerated IVD. In order to move forward in finding an effective therapeutic treatment protocol for IDD, further research needs to be implemented that minimizes the limitation discussed in this review.