Disc degeneration is one of the main causes of chronic back pain. The degenerative cascade is often triggered by an imbalance between catabolic and anabolic processes in the intervertebral discs.
Ultimately, this process leads to disc bulging and loss of water content in the nucleus pulposus and subsequent loss of disc height. Most patients respond to conservative management, however, a significant number of patients continue to experience chronic low back pain.

Pain medicine specialist Dr. Jóse Luis de Córdoba from Barcelona/Spain recently presented an interesting case report on the treatment of the 2021 Snowboard Cross World Champion who suffered from recurring low back pain of varying degrees of severity that affected his daily life and jeopardized his sporting career.

Since it was an incipient chronic degenerative process, surgical treatment was discouraged, and instead regenerative treatment with mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) was strongly recommended.