Millions of Americans suffer chronic back pain. For some spinal fusion is the only hope. Up to now methods have been very painful or come with unwanted side effects. Now there’s a high tech alternative.

Something as simple as vacuuming is too difficult for Leslie Mignona because of chronic back pain.

“I’m not looking to be a gymnast, but I’m looking to be more active in my life,” said Leslie.

For years she considered spinal fusion, which helps reduce nerve pain by stabilizing the spine.

But she wasn’t happy with surgical options until she learned of a new procedure using adult stem cells to fuse the spine together.

“I think it’s extremely exciting,” said Dr. Kam Momi, a surgeon with Coastal Spine in Mt. Laurel.

He says stem cells offer an alternative to traditional spine fusions, which are done using a patients own bone.

“What we did was make a separate incision at the pelvis, scrape out bone from the inside of the pelvis and pack that into the spine where we wanted it to go,” said Dr. Momi.

With the new stem cell procedure, disc space is filled with this material.

It’s called Trinity. And it’s a mixture of donated adult stem cells combined with crushed bone from a bone bank.

Once the material is in the spine the cells go to work.

“They genetically turn on the switches to make bone cells. They make bone cells and they lay down the new bone and eventually the bones fuse together,” said Dr. Momi.

And recovery time is usually quicker about three months versus up to a year with traditional fusions.

“Because you don’t have to scrape out the bone and you don’t have an extra incision, the infection rate is a lot less. Generally speaking these patients get on their feet faster,” said Dr. Momi.

Dana Harned is one of those patients. She tried everything before she turned to the stem cell fusion. Now post surgery, she’s thrilled with the results.

“I feel so much better. It just, there’s no way I could have gone without it,” said Dana.

Source: CBS3