Revolutionary implant helps paralysed patients walk again
Researchers implanted electrodes in the lower backs of five patients, all of whom regained some movement
A small group of paraplegic patients have once again been able to take steps after researchers implanted a device to electrically stimulate their spinal cords.
Two separate teams of scientists have revealed for the first time that the technique, together with physical training, has allowed three out of the five individuals treated to walk again after losing all voluntary movement below the site of the injury.
“It is incredible to be able to be in there and actually see them taking their first steps,” said Dr Claudia Angeli of Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Centre at the University of Louisville, and a co-author of one of the studies.
“It is an emotional time for the individual [themselves] because it is something that they have been told they are never going to be able to do again.”
In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Angeli and colleagues report that they implanted an array of 16 electrodes in the lower back of four patients, paralysed after mountain bike or traffic accidents several years before.
The device, originally developed many years ago for pain control, was placed below the site of injury, covering regions that send sensorimotor signals to the legs while a battery was implanted in the abdominal wall, allowing the frequency of the stimulation, its intensity and duration, to be tweaked wirelessly.