To this day, severe spinal cord injuries often result in lifelong paralysis. Because the cut stimulus lines in the legs do not regenerate. Now, a team led by Gregoire Courtine of the École Polytechnique de Lausanne has presented an implant through which a largely paralyzed patient named Gert Jean was able to climb stairs again. The working group reports now in the journal Nature.The electrodes transmit brain signals in real time by radio to a computer that uses them to calculate the intended movement. A pulse generator connected to a computer then sends the necessary signals to the nerves in the leg muscles by implanting another electrode. Experts rated the work as a significant improvement, but cautioned against exaggerated hopes for the experimental treatment approach.
According to the working group’s report, 40-year-old Gert Jan, who had previously been able to walk with a treadmill to a very limited extent, was able to walk with the help of crutches and even manage inclines and stairs after twelve months. of training thanks to technology. Even when the device is turned off, parts of the enhanced functionality are preserved. “It’s really a great combination of different techniques, which at least according to the report allows a new ‘quality’ of functional control of movement on the legs,” says Rainer Abel, Senior Physician in the Clinic for Orthopedics and Paraplegics at the Bayreuth Clinic. to the Media Science Center. However, it remains to be seen how far the technology can be transferred to other patients.
The procedure being tested in Lausanne is a further development of epidural electrical stimulation (EES), an experimental treatment approach in which paralysis caused by an implant below spinal cord injury can be partially reversed. What’s new is that the impulse generator on the spinal cord not only starts the movement program, but the movements are controlled directly from the brain, Abel explains. “The key aspect, in my opinion, is that everything works in real time.”
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