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Groundbreaking new treatments are set to revolutionise the recovery rate of
spinal cord injuries, as medical professor Hilali Noordeen explains
The devastating implications of a spinal cord
injury are not to be underestimated, with
patients sustaining serious long-term symptoms
such as paralysis. However, state-of-the-art
procedures that aid the recovery of nerve damage
are in development, offering new hope for better
rehabilitation. Professor Hilali Noordeen,
consultant spinal surgeon at the Royal National
Orthopedic Hospital in London, along with his
colleague Professor Thomas Carlstedt, believes
more funding is urgently needed to expedite the
advancement and availability of specialist
treatments for those affected.
An ardent polo player since his student days
at Oxford, Noordeen received a prestigious Blue
award while playing for the university team and
the Old Boys team, alongside contemporaries
such as Robert Hanson. He also played in Team
Sifani, competing in both the Queen’s and the
Gold Cup. For the past three years he has
participated in the Arena Gold Cup and enjoys
playing polo in the UK throughout the year.
One of Noordeen and Carlstedt’s success
stories is the 8-goal Argentinian polo-player
Diego Cavanagh who, after sustaining a crippling
spinal injury in February 2016, was left suffering
with symptoms including back and neck pain,
loss of sensation in his left arm, and insomnia.
By carefully freeing the nerves from the fractured
bone and disc material fusing the damage, and
repairing the spine with an artificial disc,
Cavanagh was cured in time to compete against
Noordeen in the May 2016 Queen’s Cup, just one
month after surgery. This remarkable recovery
has inspired Noordeen and Carlstedt to even more
vigorously pursue the development of techniques
that can provide a cure for this kind of injury, as
Professor Noordeen explains here.
There are currently more than 2.5 million
people worldwide living with paralysis as
the result of a spinal cord injury, making it
far more common than many people realise.
The majority of those who endure it are
young, and the effect on those afflicted can
be devastating, affecting their personal
prospects in a myriad of ways, from obvious
physical impairment to battles with mental
health. The impact of such a condition
can be far-reaching, influencing both the
injured person’s personal and professional
life, as well as having a wider impact on his
or her family and friends.
In 1995, I was appointed to treat spinal
injuries at the Royal National Orthopaedic
Hospital (RNOH) in Stanmore, England.
Much of this work was, and still is, focused
on managing the aftermath of the injury,
rather than curing the problem. In 1996,
professor Thomas Carlstedt joined the
RNOH team as a consultant orthopaedic
nerve surgeon, in order to help develop
research into curing such injuries. We knew
that in order for a cure to be possible, we
had to find a way to preserve and regenerate
the affected nerves, and quickly set to work
on pushing the boundaries within this area.
Together, we successfully undertook the first
repair of nerves of the spinal cord within
the spinal canal, below the level of the end
of the cord itself. The result was a complete
recovery of the injured nerve roots, and this
