Study: Paralyzed people can come back with a new treatment

Paralyzed people can again be limited by targeted electrical stimulation of their spine, even without help. According to a study published today in the journal "Nature", Swiss doctors have discovered that stimulation can even reactivate the nerve pathways stopped by an accident.

A team of neurologists and engineers used an implant to apply targeted electrical impulses to activate the muscles sequentially, as the brain does in healthy people. As a result, all three subjects were able to walk short distances again.

Short stretches without electrical stimulation

"The clinical test has given me hope," said 35-year-old Gert-Jan Oskam, who was told after a road accident in 2011 that he could never walk again. After five months of treatment, he is now able to walk short distances even without electrical stimulation.

Even David Mzee, 28, whose left leg is completely paralyzed since an accident in 2010, can now run up to two hours with a walker through the implant. Without igniting electrical impulses, it creates short distances.

"The result was completely unexpected"

Swiss neurologist Gregoire Courtine told AFP that her successes resulted from "more than a decade of painstaking research". In previous studies, continuous electrical stimulation of the spine was undertaken. It worked well in rats but less well in humans. After several months of training with targeted impulses, the three subjects were able to activate their previously paralyzed muscles even without electrical stimulation.

"The result was completely unexpected," says Courtine in a video published by Nature. "You can even take a few steps without any support, hands free."

Patients continue to rely on a wheelchair

Stimulation begins with a pulse that targets a muscle and triggers a movement of the patient, such as a step. The sensors on the feet recognize the movement as the first phase of a walk and send extra impulses to trigger the muscle movements needed to perform the walk. At the same time, patients plan to move and leave their muscles.

Because the brain's neurons work almost simultaneously with the electrical impulses applied to the muscles, there will eventually be a connection between the brain and the muscles. This allows the patients to control the muscles without impulses. Chet Moritz of the University of Washington said in an independent evaluation of the study that it was "a huge leap forward" in the field of spinal cord injury.

Courtine warned against too much expectations. The three subjects still depend on their wheelchairs, he said. In addition, the study is limited to patients with residual residual sensations in the lower body. With his colleague Jocelyne Bloch, also involved in the study, he has created a start-up to advance the technique and to investigate patients who have just been injuring the spinal cord.