Implant Restores Paralyzed Man's Leg Movement

cylonlover writes "In a move that gives cautious hope to the millions of people suffering some form of paralysis, a team of researchers from UCLA, Caltech and the University of Louisville has given a man rendered paralyzed from the chest down after a hit-and-run accident in 2006 the ability to stand and take his first tentative steps in four years. The team used a stimulating electrode array implanted into the man's body to provide continual direct electrical stimulation to the lower part of the spinal cord that controls movement of the hips, knees, ankles and toes, to mimic the signals the brain usually sends to initiate movement (abstract)."

Comments

All the best

[loonyjuice]

A small step for man, a great leap for mankind

Re:All the best

[Sonny Yatsen]

Even if it doesn't restore full mobility, I think this is a great advancement that allows a paralyzed patient to stave off or to recover from the muscle atrophy or blood clots caused by lack of motion that occurs after the accident.

Re:All the best

[DrgnDancer]

I heard an article about this on NPR this morning. He apparently has a fair amount of control and even feeling while the power is turned on. He talked about getting a shot in his lower back while the systems was powered up and being able to feel the pain, the pressure of the insertion, everything you'd expect a normal person to be able to feel. He joked about it being both bad and good, but you could tell he was really pleased.

The interesting thing is that they aren't, from what I understand, trying to bypass the damaged nerves, rather they're applying a continuous current to them, which seems to boost the natural ability of the nerves to receive signals. For lack of a better description (and assuming I understand what's going on, which is assuming a lot, even the doctors don't seem too clear on the details) the applied current allows the nerve signals to "jump" the cut in his nervous system.

Also for reasons I don't understand, they only use the system 2 hours or so a day, so for the majority of the time he's a normal paraplegic. That may explain why it's taking him so long to relearn things like walking and standing, though the article indicates that only gross movements may ever be possible so it could be that the signals just aren't strong enough still for fine motor control.

Re:All the best

[MonsterTrimble]

The interesting thing is that they aren't, from what I understand, trying to bypass the damaged nerves, rather they're applying a continuous current to them, which seems to boost the natural ability of the nerves to receive signals. For lack of a better description (and assuming I understand what's going on, which is assuming a lot, even the doctors don't seem too clear on the details) the applied current allows the nerve signals to "jump" the cut in his nervous system. Also for reasons I don't understand, they only use the system 2 hours or so a day

My guess would be that since it sounds like they're using a type of amplifier and that the system is so new they don't what to further injure this person's nervous system by having too much voltage too long. By the sounds of it this person's set of issues is rare, so it's doubly important they do this 'velvet glove' style.

As well, I would like to parrot the 'keep up the good work'. I have a cousin who was in gymnastics when he was younger then in his 20s had a serious traffic accident and left him paralysed from the chest down. It'd be cool to see him walk again.

Re:All the best

[the biologist]

Another aspect of this technique is that some signals from the brain may be getting through, but they're not strong enough to get the leg muscles to contract properly. In this scenario, the device would be acting as an amplifier. Giving the leg muscles enough signal strength to contract, but introducing noise to the signal recieved from the brain.

Re:All the best

[Renraku]

Actually, that's wrong. At least in cats. As proof they kept a cat's body alive, removed its brain, and put it on a treadmill. The cat was held up, but as the legs felt pressure on them, they started to run by themselves. Rather well, too, matching speed with the treadmill. The muscles and spinal cord basically play a huge role in balance and walking..it isn't 100% brain controlled.

C'mon, scientists...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

This is supposed to be the future. It's cool that he can walk and all; but where is the iphone app that will allow me to control his legs over the internet?

Thats awesome!

[gatkinso]

Keep it up!

UCLA.
Caltech.
University of Louisiana.

Reports of American research demise seem to be premature (looking at the names the team looks multinational - hard to tell just by a name these days).

Re:Happy for the man, yet disappointed.

[Ironhandx]

The man has a spinal cord injury. Not a spinal COLUMN injury(though he had that too). Spinal cords do not magically heal no matter what you do to them.

I really, really wish that you nutjobs would shut the hell up. Chiropractors are a godsend, for some injuries. I blew out a portion of my disc between t11 and t12 years ago. It caused all sorts of havoc and got to the point where I could very nearly no longer walk. Chiropractic care and a good regimen of exercises turned this around completely The pain had caused muscles to tense and throw all sorts of things out of place. The chiropractor got everything back into shape, and the back pain subsided a fair bit.

Heres the news flash: My disc is still blown. It did not magically heal, nor will it. An adjustment may allow space for some extra tissue to grow make the injury less painful, but thats about it.

The worst part is your post has a hint of truth, but heaped on it is a mountain of crackpot bullshit. You're giving chiropractors everywhere a bad name, and on behalf of those of us who know how much good they CAN do I say: Please, go crawl under a rock somewhere and stay there. Its people like you that mean a lot of folks can't get their chiropractic physiotherapy covered when it could potentially be the only thing that will get them real relief.

Key points for me

[HBI]

1) The spinal cord is not simply a transmission mechanism. Primarily, it controls the operation of the lower extremities.

2) The spinal cord requires a minimal 'data feed' to operate - over the spinal cord itself.

To me, this explains much about paralysis and ultimately, how to conquer it. It is interesting that I had never had the idea of the spinal cord being just the 'copper' linking your extremities to your brain corrected at any point in the past.

I also know someone with spina bifida who would benefit from this, if it were possible. Of course, reading about the physical condition and special circumstances of the research volunteer (having feeling below the injury) suggests that this may not be possible.

Re:Key points for me

[Plekto]

Right. But there's nothing to say that a properly designed shunt couldn't fix or bridge the gap (or we re-wire directly form the break to the muscles themselves). Most of what happens in your body (legs as an example) is controlled by a few specific groups of muscles, but it's not like we need to reconnect a thousand synthetic nerves to muscles and so on. It's only a few dozen. Once they are reconnected, recovery should be extremely quick.

In a decade, spinal injuries will be a problem and no longer a disaster.

Re:Happy for the man, yet disappointed.

[Moryath]

Yeah seriously.

I've had back problems from time to time, mostly related to overstressed muscles. I've gone to a chiropractor for it, had therapeutic massage and spinal adjustments done, and it did a lot of good. Eliminated for weeks at a time a problem that a normal doctor would have hit with muscle relaxants and painkillers.

BUT, the first thing my chiropractor did was take X-rays, both to see the underlying problem and guide the course of treatment. And he was willing to point out that NO serious spinal injury, nothing anywhere near the level of possibly damaging the spinal cord, should be hit with chiropractic treatment. For those, they have this thing called "Traction." He's actually sent patients over to a real hospital when they showed up asking for chiropractic treatment and his X-rays showed they had a major, serious, surgery-level problem.

The problem with chiropractic medicine is that for every good chiropractor out there who treats it as medicine, you have three lying assholes who go on and on about "energy" and "life flow" and all the other sort of new-agey bunk that gives the field a bad name.