Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 22 - A doctor and a bio-technologist from Kerala have come up with an alternative treatment for patients with critical spinal injuries and are now awaiting clearance from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct human trials.

P.S. John, an orthopaedist, and C.S. Poulose, a bio-technologist, claim to have successfully conducted trials on rats and rabbits at the department of neurosciences at the Cochin University of Science and Technology from 2002 to 2008.

John, who retired as head of the department of orthopaedics from the Kottayam Medical College, said: 'We have developed a treatment protocol where one's own bone marrow cells and neurotransmitter (a hormone like chemical messenger that carries impulses from one nerve cell to the other) will be injected to the patient. Depending on the nature of injury, the injection could last a month or for 12 months.'

The laboratory tests were done under the supervision of Poulose, who is director of neurosciences at the university.

Their work has by now been presented at many international conferences and is accepted for publication in Current Science.