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Young Kelly Thomas, 23, grew up on horseback, raising livestock and helping her father on his ranch. In 2014, a car accident left her paraplegic with an incomplete injury to the spinal cord, paralyzed in the chest. down, unable to use the legs.
Chief Jeff Marquis led a very active life in the wild until, in the fall of 2011, everything changed after a bike accident on a mountain trail, which caused him a serious injury. the spine, leaving him tetraplegic and unable to function. move from chest to bottom.
Jered Chinnock, a 29-year-old man, was injured in the spinal cord of the thoracic vertebrae in the middle of his back during a snowmobile accident in 2013: he was unable to move or feel anything below the middle of the torso. .
These three people can now walk through two systems combining complementary stimulation of devices implanted in the body, daily locomotor training and physical therapy, developed independently by two US research teams.
Reconnect brain and bones
Thomas and Marquis managed to move their legs as part of the experience of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, located at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, United States .
Two other spinal injuries managed to maintain stability in their trunk and stay upright, using stimulation and mental focus on it, as part of this same research initiative.
"This research demonstrates that connectivity of the brain to the spine can be restored years after a spinal cord injury," says Dr. Susan Harkema, author of the study, professor and associate director of KSCIRS. "Participants in this study who were living with complete paralysis were able to walk, stand, regain their trunk mobility and other motor functions, without physical assistance, when using the pacemaker epidural and remained mentally focused on the approach, "says Harkema.
This specialist hopes to extend this research to more participants, using improved stimulation technology, because of the "tremendous potential for advancement of this method and the opportunities it may offer in the future for people with the spinal cord ", indicates
"When all four participants joined the study at least two and a half years ago, they were injured and could no longer get up, walk or move their legs voluntarily," says Efe Betty Coffman, communications specialist on health issues at the UdeL.
Two of these participants, Thomas and Marquis, managed to walk on the floor and on a treadmill with the aid of assistive devices, such as a trotter and horizontal poles, in order to maintain the Balance when the epidural stimulator was turned on, explains Coffman.
According to UofL, this research relies on two different treatments: locomotor physical training and epidural spinal stimulation (ECS), by means of an implanted device that sends electrical signals to motoneurons in the spine .
"Epidural stimulation involves the application of continuous electrical current at different frequencies and intensities to specific areas of the lumbosacral spinal cord, a location corresponding to dense neural networks that largely controls the movement of the hips, knees, and ankles. and toes, "explains Coffman.
For its part, locomotor training "has the ultimate goal of re-educating the spinal cord in order to" remember "the neurological pattern corresponding to the activity of walking, repetitive practice, standing posture and walking. ", agree with this communicator of the UofL.
"During a locomotor therapy session, the weight of the participant is supported by a harness, while specially trained personnel move the injured person's legs to simulate walking on a treadmill," Coffman says.
Back to walk five years later
Spinal cord stimulation and combined physiotherapy helped Jered Chinnock regain his ability to stand up and walk with help, as a result of further research conducted in the United States as part of from a collaboration between the Mayo Clinic of Rochester, Minnesota. and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
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