The epidural wore off. The surgeon has named the level and the operation, and you are not ready to sign. The physician team at Hospital Angeles in Tijuana, Mexico, 25 to 30 minutes from San Diego, reads your MRI and tells you plainly whether cell therapy fits your back or neck, or whether the surgeon is right. Spine cases get the most careful evaluation of any region we treat.
A patient coordinator typically calls within 1 business day. About 15 minutes, no cost, no obligation.
Medically reviewed by the physician team at Hospital Angeles · October 2026
Fluoroscopy, every level
A disc or facet sits deep, behind bone. The needle is placed under live X-ray and contrast dye confirms the level before any cells are released.
1 day, 1 session
Over the border and back, most patients home the same day. Follow-up calls at 1 week, then at 1, 3 and 6 months, then once a year; whether a second treatment makes sense is decided at those reviews, not sold up front.
If you are reading this with your MRI report open in another tab, this is the section to read it against. Cortisone bought you a few months. An epidural bought a few more, then wore off. Then an ablation, and now a surgeon naming a level. That is not your back failing: a steroid calms inflammation for a while and puts nothing into the disc. The patients who do well here have an identifiable disc, facet, or nerve-root finding on MRI, a pain pattern that matches it, and a history like that one. The evaluation exists to separate those cases from the rest before anyone commits.
Not a fit
When a segment is unstable or a nerve is losing strength, decompression or fusion is the right tool, and we say so. Sudden weakness, numbness, or loss of bladder or bowel control is an emergency, not an evaluation.
Not a fit
A fragment of disc that has broken free and is causing a worsening nerve problem is a surgical case, routed to a surgeon promptly. A contained herniation is a different picture.
Strong fit
MRI-confirmed disc pathology at 1 or 2 levels with preserved disc height, Modic changes (inflammation in the bone beside the disc) or a positive discogram, and a pain pattern that matches the findings. The profile we accept most often.
Also a fit
Persistent pain after a decompression, adjacent-level degeneration above or below a fusion, pain that came back after an ablation. The hardware is not the problem; what matters is whether the level driving your pain is identifiable and reachable.
Also a fit
Lumbar or cervical radicular pain (pain that runs down a leg or an arm from an irritated nerve root) from a contained disc or an inflamed root, at a level that matches the MRI.
Also a fit
Facet arthropathy (wear in the small joints at the back of each vertebra), lumbar or cervical, confirmed by a diagnostic block.
Your imaging decides. Not a sales team. Your first call is with a patient coordinator, who collects your MRI report for the physician team to read. Nobody quotes or books treatment before that read.
Book a call →A disc, a facet joint, and a nerve root sit deep, behind bone. Ultrasound cannot see through bone. Fluoroscopy (a live X-ray) shows the vertebrae, the needle, and the contrast dye that proves the needle is at the right level before a single cell is released. No ultrasound shortcuts. No blind injection.
Levels set from the MRI
Disc height, Modic changes, facet degeneration, and what is pressing on which nerve root are read from your imaging against your pain pattern and any prior diagnostic blocks. Candidacy and levels come from that read.
Local anesthetic, sedation available
Local anesthetic always, with twilight sedation available if you want it, so the physician can place the full dose at each level. About 15 to 30 minutes on the table, depending on how many levels are treated.
Needle under live X-ray
The physician confirms the needle is in the disc, the facet, or beside the nerve root at the chosen level, and only then releases the dose. Then the next level. 1 to 3 levels in a session.
The cells, and what rides alongside
Bone-marrow and umbilical-cord MSCs (mesenchymal stem cells), often together, sometimes with chondrocytes (cartilage cells) when the disc or facet surface is part of the picture. PRP (platelet-rich plasma, from your own blood) or medical ozone are added in some cases, never in every one. Almost every joint and spine patient also receives a systemic IV the same day. Which cells, what dose, which levels: the physician team decides from your imaging.
Local soreness for about a week afterward is normal. The needle work creates inflammation by design, and that settles before anything else begins. Any change is measured over months, not days.
Degenerative disc disease is a disc drying and thinning over years. A herniation is disc material pushing out of place, and the kind of herniation decides everything.
Degenerative disc disease
Herniated disc
Send the report and the images. The physician team reads them before anyone quotes or books you.
Book a call →Pain that runs from the low back down the leg is a nerve root being irritated, by a disc or by the inflamed tissue around the root. The evaluation finds the level and the driver. The injection goes to the inflammatory environment around that root, under fluoroscopy, with contrast confirming the level. Nerve regrowth is not what we target and not something we promise. If something needs urgent care instead, we recognize it and route you there.
If your sciatica has a level on the MRI, L4, L5, or S1, send the report. The physician team reads it for the level before anyone books you.
The cervical spine is evaluated exactly as the lumbar spine is: MRI read against your pain pattern, the level selected deliberately, fluoroscopic delivery with contrast confirmation.
A worn cervical disc at 1 or 2 levels, on the same criteria as the low back: disc height preserved, findings that match the pain.
Cervical facet arthropathy confirmed by a diagnostic block.
Nerve-root pain running into the shoulder, arm, or hand from a contained cervical disc or an inflamed root, at a level that matches the imaging.
"The back specialist told me that he wanted to fuse me." "I just didn't want to have bolts in my back. I just didn't want hardware." Scott M., a Celva patient, on the fork most people reading this are standing at. Here is the comparison, plainly.
A fusion
Stem cells, at the level
The honest limit: the spine is the slowest region we treat to respond. The first days are soreness, and nothing is judged before the 1-month call.
Book a call →Rewind to the pickup. Here is the day, start to finish, and where it can run long.
Pickup, Southern California
A Celva driver collects you anywhere in Southern California and takes you home afterward. A companion is welcome, never required. 25 to 30 minutes from San Diego to Hospital Angeles, Tijuana, a 116-bed private hospital in the Angeles Health network.
The physician, in person
You meet the physician first. Your MRI has already been read; if the team wants a fresh look at the level, the hospital's own MRI can image it that day, with the radiologist's read the same day.
On the table
Local anesthetic, twilight sedation available, fluoroscopy in the room, contrast at every level, 1 to 3 levels. Almost every joint and spine patient also receives a systemic IV the same day.
Discharge
The attending physician authorizes discharge, and most patients go home the same day. If your case calls for a night in Tijuana, you hear it during intake, not on arrival. Expect soreness in the spine where the needle went in, for about a week, then normal activity. Physical therapy is recommended, starting after the first 7 to 10 days.
After that: a pain-and-safety call at 1 week, then calls at 1, 3 and 6 months and once a year after that, and the spine is judged on the later ones because it takes longer to show anything. The physicians on every chart: Dr. Cesar Amescua (Medical Director), Dr. Rocio Ambrosio Nuño (anesthesiology and sedation), and Dr. Alejandro Castillo (interventional radiology).
Book a call →"I'd have to lay down because I'd be in pain." Jon C. hurt his back years ago, then re-sprained it doing jiu-jitsu: "weird, odd pain, numbness, tingling." Two flare-ups where he could not walk well. Doctors, MRIs, physical therapy. Surgery was the other option on the table. This is his film, in his own words, shot at Hospital Angeles on his treatment day. No script. Individual results vary.
The ones we hear on almost every first call about a back or a neck.
A patient coordinator collects your MRI. The physician team reads it and tells you plainly: candidate, not a candidate, or the surgeon is right. No pitch either way, and no second treatment sold before the first one has been followed up.
