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Three people with spinal cord injuries were able to regain mobility, and even take a few steps, thanks to the stimulation by electrodes. Progress has been seen even without this stimulation. An important step forward for neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch.
A medical feat was achieved in Switzerland: paraplegic patients treated by electrical stimulation were able to walk again, and even, for the first time, in the absence of stimulation. "Immediately rehabilitating someone with spinal cord stimulation could bring hope for better recovery"Thursday, Franceinfo neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch of the University Hospital of Lausanne, who is involved in this research of the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.
franceinfo: What is your method?
Jocelyne Bloch: The spinal cord is stimulated with an electrode field located on the last five centimeters of the spinal cord. These are the most important to activate the legs. When one has a spinal cord injury that is above five centimeters, the bottom five centimeters are still functional, but they are no longer activated by the brain or insufficiently for leg movement. And so, with the establishment of these electrodes, we will facilitate the movement. The big difference is that we were able to make Lausanne, with all this team led by Professor Grégoire Courtine, a stimulation in time and space. That is to say, we will target each area of the spinal cord to activate the leg muscles alternately because we do not stimulate everything at the same time. When you stimulate everything at the same time, it's much harder to walk. That's what the Americans have done so far. Now, we stimulate after understanding how we walk naturally, we try to stimulate naturally activated areas when we move.
How is it going for patients?
When we put the implant, there is a phase of understanding, what is called a 'mapping', a mapping where we understand each of these areas, to which muscle they correspond and then, we make a program specialized for each, well individualized. What we are already observing is that when one verticalises the spinal cord, he is able to take steps very quickly. Because when you stimulate in the right place, he can quickly appropriate this stimulation and take steps. Then there is a long work because the three people who were called in this study have long been reached and are no longer used to taking steps. So, we will have to re-train. There are four to five months of training four times a week. They walk fast and the more time pbades, the more they walk, the greater the distances, the better stamina. Afterwards, we note neurological recoveries. Muscles that did not work for several years, start walking again.
Even without stimulation, two of the patients find a little use of their legs. Is there hope for paralyzed people to fully recover their abilities?
One of the patients had a paralyzed left leg for seven years. After two months, he starts to move the toes without stimulation and then he flexes his knee, he stretches it, he moves his hip and then now he is even able to take steps without stimulation. It is clear that we have seen in these three patients who have been sick for a very long time, an improvement but they do not work like you and me. It is unlikely that one day they will walk like us. It is a source of hope, but we also have to calibrate our expectations a bit and then perhaps re-examine a new way of re-educating people with spinal cord injuries. And certainly just after an injury, immediately rehabilitating someone with spinal cord stimulation could bring hope for better recovery. We work to be able to one day touch everyone.
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