Acute flaccid myelitis: doctors perform rare nerve transfer surgery in a paralyzed child

Doctors in St. Louis are launching a special surgical operation to help children regain movement and feel paralyzed limbs as a result of contracting a rare virus similar to polio.

Dr. Amy Moore, of Washington University in St. Louis, performed a nerve transfer operation in an 8-year-old patient, Brandon, who had lost all sensation in her legs as a result of a push Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), local CBS. The subsidiary KMOV reported Tuesday.

AFM is a rare but serious disorder in which a virus affects the spinal cord and quickly causes weakness or paralysis of a limb. It is most common in children, about 400 of whom have been diagnosed since 2014. Doctors do not know exactly what causes the rise in cases, but they think it is linked to a respiratory virus that spreads both years, in summer and in autumn.

In Brandon, her parents told KMOV that her symptoms had progressed from week to week, ranging from cold symptoms to headaches and neck pain. In a few days, he could no longer use his legs and get up from the bed.

This is the first known surgical procedure in which doctors have transferred the nerves of the lower limbs, said Dr. Moore.

"I used what they have. They wiggled their toes and I was able to move a nerve that moves the toes up to the hips, "she told KMOV.

Nerve transfer surgeries have been proven for the upper limbs. In 2014, Dr. Moore published a research paper on the growing preference for nerve transfer surgery for weak arms and hands and spinal cord injuries.

"Nerve transfers considered a" standard of care "may not be that far," she wrote in an article in Frontiers in Neurology. "Currently, they are certainly very promising and should be taken into account in restoring upper limb function in patients with devastating nerve damage."

This idea was confirmed in California, where doctors at the Los Angeles Children's Hospital performed a nerve transfer operation with a 4-year-old girl who contracted paralysis of the right arm after an MFA surge.

For this operation, the surgeons took the nerves of the ribs and the diaphragm of the girl and directed them to his arm.

However, the St. Louis case was the first to bring sensations and movements to the boy's legs. The operation had taken place 14 months earlier and during his checkup at the end of October, Brandon had told KMOV that he was playing again, although he must keep his wheelchair nearby.

"It's incredible," he said. "Thanks to Miss Doctor Moore, I can go out, play with my brothers, play football."