Retired professional golfer Jack Nicklaus is scheduled for his second round of stem cell treatment in Munich on Saturday after the same procedure was done for his back in 2016.
Nicklaus, nicknamed The Golden Bear and regarded as the greatest golfer of all time, appears convinced about stem cell treatment which remains in clinical trials stage in the United States.
The surgery he will be having on Saturday follows a similar stem cell procedure he underwent in February of 2016 to cure a back pain he had been suffering from much of his golf career. The technical term for this ailment is facet joint syndrome.
At present, FDA has only approved four stem cell trials at Sanford Health. These trials involved stem cell treatment for the osteoarthritis of the knee, osteoarthritis of the wrist, rotator cuff tear, and most recently the facet joints.
Facet Joint Stem Cell Therapy
Nicklaus rated his back pain as an eight or nine out of 10 on the pain scale. He had actually been suffering while his golf career peaked. At 19 years old, he already had nine cortisone shots for his back pain. He had another back surgery when he was 64 years old.
Finally, in 2015, he met German stem cell pioneer Dr. Eckhard Alt and a year after, Nicklaus received his first adipose-derived stem cell treatment.
Alt explains that he considered all possible treatment for Nicklaus before deciding on stem cell treatment. There are anti-inflammatory medications the famous golfer can take daily but they are known to have side effects. Regular cortisone injections were also an option but these would only relieve the symptoms and would not provide the cure. Another option was to tighten up his back with screws and metals but this has more complications later on.
"By healing the tissue and decreasing the inflammation," stem cells would be the option with the lowest risk that Nicklaus can get, says Alt.
The stem cell treatment given to him involved harvesting fat from his abdominal area through liposuction. For his treatment, three ounces of fat was extracted from him. The fat in the human body has rich blood vessels where stem cells are stored.
An enzyme called Matrase was then used to strain the abdominal fat. This would break down the fat tissue until pure stem cells in large quantities will be released. This mix was then spun down through a centrifuge until a concentrated islet of stem cells was obtained. The substance was then injected to Nicklaus's lumbar spine 10 times and four times in his cervical spine or neck.
Stem Cell Clinical Trials At Sanford Health
On April 27, Sanford Health announced that the U.S. Food Drug And Administration has recently approved two new clinical trials involving adipose-derived stem cells to be conducted at its facility.
One of these treatments is the facet joint study, a feasibility trial which has just opened this summer. The testing will look into the probable healing capability of adipose-derived stem cells in patients with osteoarthritis of the facet joints.
The study will be participated by 40 patients — 20 will undergo liposuction and the other 20 will receive standard of treatment care. Thomas Boetel, M.D. is the lead investigator for the study.
As for Nicklaus receiving stem cell treatment in Munich, Dr. Mark Lundeen, chairman at Sanford Health, says they believe in the work done by Dr. Alt.
