DISCSEEL® PROCEDURE

AS SEEN ON CBS SUNDAY MORNING

In this segment for CBS Sunday Morning, Dr. Kevin Pauza explains why his work with patients who failed to get relief from spinal fusion led him to develop the Discseel® Procedure, which directly treats spinal discs.

WHY THE DISCSEEL® PROCEDURE WORKS?

“A wise surgeon said: ‘spine fusions remain unchanged since their inception in 1911.’ This was before Ford’s Model T, and is why patients beg for improvement.” Dr. Pauza

The Discseel® Procedure uses a substance called Fibrin that is made from human blood. It is an FDA-approved drug that is used off-label, analogous to corticosteroid used for epidural injections. Corticosteroid is an FDA approved drug, but is not indicated for the epidural space, yet physicians recognize its help with patient’s back pain. Dr. Pauza uses non-autologous Fibrin in the same manner. He introduces it into damaged discs in your lumbar and/or cervical spine. It seals the disc, becoming a part of the disc, and then promotes disc tissue to grow in patient’s discs. During the Discseel® Procedure, part of the process is to look for torn discs as evidenced through live x-rays obtained during the Annulogram and then, seal the torn discs with Fibrin during the Discseel® Procedure. The goal of the Fibrin is to seal torn, leaky discs and promote regrowth of disc tissue. 

Before today, the main options for bulged and degenerated discs were surgery, narcotics, injections with corticosteroids or living with pain, which is why Dr. Pauza developed the Discseel® Procedure after caring for hundreds of patients who were made worse following their spine surgery. 

A spine surgeon once commented: “One hundred years from now, they’ll be shocked that patients allowed metal rods, plates, or cages to be implanted into their bodies.” The Fibrin used in Discseel® will likely replace expensive, unsuccessful fusions. One can see into the future by observing the past. For example, in the past, painful hip joints were fused to the pelvis using metal plates. This analogy parallels the spine fusions of today.

HOW THE DISCSEEL®PROCEDURE WORKS

During the Discseel® Procedure Fibrin is injected into the torn discs to seal tears within the annulus fibrosus. The Fibrin begins to heal the disc over time. Healing occurs because the biologic injected into the disc sends a signal to the body telling the body what it needs to heal (scientists call this “chemotaxis”). The discs begin to heal because collagen, which makes up a disc, is “called” into to the disc. Tears evident before Discseel®, seal with fibrin after treatment. More importantly, during the next year the disc continues to heal, thus allowing the person to avoid surgery. In some instances, patients have discs with endplates that no longer function, thus not allowing a disc to repair. Unfortunately, there is no test that shows whether the endplate of a disc is functioning. Research shows that 70% of patients who are treated with the Discseel® Procedure report they get better regarding pain, function, and quality of life. It’s important to note that of that 70%, most are patients who have failed almost all prior treatments and surgeries.  

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