Lumbar Puncture

Lumbar puncture is a 15 minutes surgical procedure conducted under local anesthesia.

A needle is carefully inserted into the spinal canal between two lumbar vertebrae. The spinal cord is absent in this location and there is little chance for injury. After tapping cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), stem cells are injected into the subarachnoid space. The stem cells then travel into the spinal cord and brain with the natural CSF circulation. One cycle of CSF circulation takes approximately six hours.

The advantage of this procedure is that it is simple, safe, pain free and a large quantity of stem cells can be directly administered into the central nervous system.

After stem cell administration via lumbar puncture, the patient will be required to remain in their bed for six hours for monitoring.
 Most patients have no adverse effects, although a few complain of headache or backache. These symptoms are temporary and disappear within a few days.

Post Treat­ment Monitoring

Usually, after each lumbar puncture, patients are observed and put on a mon­i­tor which assesses their heart rate, res­pi­ra­tion, and other rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion. A nurse will tend to you, gauge your tem­per­a­ture, and record all data. If you don’t have fever or com­pli­ca­tions, you will be free to leave the hos­pi­tal.