Paralysed patients may be able to regain the ability to walk, cycle, and even swim as a result of a new device, scientists have said.
Yesterday, February 7, a group of scientists led by Grégoire Courtine and Jocelyne Bloch of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne unveiled new research surrounding a nerve-stimulation device that can be controlled by a touchscreen tablet.
Three patients who were left completely paralysed from the waist down by injuries sustained to their thoracic spines were involved in the study.
The three patients had suffered injuries to the area above their lower back but below their neck between one and nine years before they received the implant, Reuters reports.
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The patients were all male, aged 29, 32 and 41, had all suffered their injuries as a result of motorbike accidents.
After a complete spinal cord injury, messages are unable to successfully travel from the brain to nerves in the spinal cord to activate certain muscles.
In this study, neurosurgeons implanted prototypes of a nerve-stimulation device that allows electrical signals to enter the spine from the patients' sides rather than their back.
Spinal cord regions are able to be more specifically activated and targeted by the redesigned device, according to Courtine.
Artificial intelligence algorithms were then devised by the scientists to instruct electrodes on the implanted device to stimulate certain nerves within the patient.
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The software was designed uniquely to the anatomy of each patient,.
The patients were then able to use a device to send a message to the implant to stimulate such movement themselves, selecting an action such as 'walk' or 'sit'.
Just an hour after the operation, the patients were able to 'immediately activate their legs and step'.
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Although the patients need time to adjust to the technology and to build their physical strength after having not utilised their lower body muscles in such a long period of time, 'the more they train, the more they start lifting their muscles, the more fluid it becomes,' Bloch explained.
Six months after receiving the implant, researchers said patients were able to perform activities outside of the clinic, such as cycling and swimming, by using a touchscreen tablet to control the nerve stimulation devices themselves.
Courtine and Bloch are hoping to commercialise the technology, having established Onward Medical, a technology company based in the Netherlands, to do so.
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While there is currently no treatment to help the healing of the spinal cord by itself, Courtine said a clinical trial involving 70 to 100 people in the US is expected to launch to pursue the use of technology as a means of helping people who are paralysed regain mobility.
This larger group of participants is hoped to confirm the initial study's results on the three men. Researchers also hope that instead of a tablet, smartphones or smartwatches could also be utilised to control the life-changing device.
The findings are published in academic journal Nature Medicine.
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Topics: Science
Poppy Bilderbeck