Unsafe Ocular Stem Cell Treatments Prevalent

Experimental stem cell therapies for eye conditions are being offered at dozens of unregulated clinics in the United States, and some of these procedures are harmful, researchers report.

Clinicians should warn their patients against clinics that provide stem cell treatments but offer no other ophthalmologic services, said Ajay Kuriyan, MD, from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

“I can’t say that these treatments won’t work,” he told Medscape Medical News. However, “I can say that we have seen blinding complications at some of these clinics.”

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