Galway Bay fm newsroom - Researchers at NUI Galway have made a potentially major breakthrough in the treatment of lower back pain.
The research team at CÚRAM have developed a new therapy that can be used as an injectable, instead of conventional surgical intervention.
Lower back pain is the second leading cause of disability worldwide - with almost 50 percent of Europeans experiencing such pain at some point in their lives as a result of the degeneration of discs in the spine.
Professor Abhay Pandit and his research team at CÚRAM, based at NUI Galway, have now developed a bio-material based therapy that can be adapted to an injectable system.
Clinical studies have shown that a special hydrogel used by researchers has the ability to reduce inflammation and pain as well as actively promote disc repair.
The development is seen as a hugely promising alternative to current conservative treatment or surgical interventions for lower back pain.
The research from the team at NUI Galway has been published in the prestigious journal 'Science Advances'.
