This a follow up article to Shenyang 463 Diabetic Foot Trial .

Over the last weeks, we have been meeting with various hospitals. One day in October was spent in Shenyang – not known for its beauty but still pleasant - with Dr. Yang Xiao Feng whose work was impressive and whose laboratory facilities were well equipped, clean and well functioning.

The first thing we learned is that the number of cases we originally thought she had done for diabetic foot were not correct. The exact case numbers are: diabetic foot – (88), arteriosclerosis of the lower limbs (56), thromboangitis obliterans (10), and others including angitis (4).

According to the healthAtoZ web site, Diabetic foot infections are infections that can develop in the skin, muscles, or bones of the foot as a result of the nerve damage and poor circulation that is associated with diabetes. arteriosclerosis (from the Greek arteria, meaning artery) is a general term for hardening of the arteries. Thromboangitis obliterans is also called Buerger's disease and is defined as an inflammation of the arteries, veins, and nerves in the legs, principally, leading to restricted blood flow. Left untreated, Buerger's disease can lead to gangrene of the affected areas.

These patients have been treated since early 2003. All of these patients had some type of pain in their legs, ulcers or gang green from lack of circulation. The time of stay in the hospital ranged from 10 days to two months. They used both vasodilators and stem cells for treatment. Many of the patients had visited many hospitals before and many had been told their legs must be amputated. The preparation of the stem cells takes four hours and is similar to collecting adult stem cells in the U.S.

They use both peripheral blood stem cells and bone marrow stem cells for the diabetic foot treatments. For femoral head necrosis, they use peripheral blood stem cells treatment only. The preparation of the treatment is no different than what has been done in the U.S. for years and they have been doing similar preparations for other diseases like leukemia for years but they are some of the first in the world to use adult stem cells for these diseases They are working with the Beike group to begin trying fetal and umbilical cord stem cells with the same diseases though will not start until next month.

Some of the patients they have treated have had only one injection and were happy with the results so they did not come back for me. Others came back in a year or more to hope to improve upon the original results. From what the doctors said, those that did, had more improvement but not as much as the first injections.

We videotaped our visits with seven patients who all were happy with the improvements. The seven patients were treated for: arteriorsclerosis (3), diabetic foot (2) and thromboangitis obliterans (2). We will publish their patient experiences with video soon.

Foreign patients with diabetic foot, arteriosclerosis or thromboangitis obliterans can be treated at Nan Shan hospital in Shen Zhen for US $10,000 for a 10 to 20 day stay with a caregiver. The time of treatment should be between 10 to 20 days depending on the case.

Pictures from Shenyang Hospital:

                  Dr. Yang in Doctor's Room

          Extracting Bone Marrow Stem Cells

                      Cell Research Lab

                           Stem Cell Lab

                          Stem Cell Lab

                       Shenyang Suburbs