Adverse events of cell therapy clinical trials in human chronic spinal cord injury, a systematic review and meta-analysis

This study reviews the safety of cell therapy for chronic spinal cord injury by examining the adverse events reported in clinical trials. The review included 76 studies with over 1600 patients and identified common side effects like backache and urinary issues. No life-threatening events were reported. The researchers concluded that cell therapy appears relatively safe for chronic spinal cord injury, with most side effects being mild to moderate.

• 1
  The most common adverse events were transient backache and meningism (90%) and cord malacia (80%).
• 2
  The cell therapy method in which the treatment was associated with more adverse events was Olfactory ensheathing cell and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell combination therapy in 55%, and the adverse events were less with the embryonic stem cell in 2.33% of patients.
• 3
  The total prevalence of adverse events in cell therapy was 19% and the highest pulled effect size belonged to urinary tract and localized adverse events.