Neuroscientists develops Technology that allows Quadriplegics to Walk
Three people who had become paraplegic after motorcycle accidents have managed to get back on their feet and take a few steps. Thanks to a surgical intervention to implant electrodes directly on his spinal cord. All three participants had lost all ability to move in their lower limbs and trunk due to complete spinal severing. “One day after I started practising I saw that my legs were moving again; It was a very intense emotion”, explained Michel Rocatti, one of the three patients, at a press conference.
The neuroscientist Grégoire Courtine, from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (Switzerland), and the neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch, from the university hospital in the same city, lead the scientific team responsible for this achievement. In a four-hour operation, doctors implanted 16 electrodes at different points on the spinal cord. These electrodes emit synchronized electrical pulses that mimic the signals that circulate along the spinal cord that links the brain with the lower limbs. And in turn, the electrodes are connected to a computer with an artificial intelligence system that reproduces the impulses necessary to walk, ride a special bicycle or row a canoe, three of the activities that the participants in this study have managed to carry out , details of which are published in Nature Medicine.
For the first time, the electrodes and the long cables that are connected to them have been manufactured specifically for this trial and taking into account the particular injuries of each participant. “Until now, all implants of this type reused electrodes originally designed to treat pain,” explains Courtine. “For the first time, designing a specific technology for this new use allows us to better synchronize stimulation with the moment of movement, imitating the real signals sent by the brain when walking, for example,” details the scientist.
On this occasion it has been possible to stimulate not only the nerves that move the legs, but also the muscles of the abdomen and lower back. The participants were able to return to their feet immediately after the operation and took their first steps, initially suspended in a harness. Fine-tuning the movements took months of training, but finally, after about four or five months they were able to walk without any support.
The most important idea behind this work is that some spinal cord injuries should no longer be considered irreversible. In the case of the three patients treated by Courtine, the team was able to verify that perhaps there is some spinal cord that had not been severed by the accident and that it returns to activate and timidly push the muscles of the legs and chest.
The Swiss team has already treated nine patients. For now it is only an experimental intervention for a very small number of people. But Courtine explains that his team hopes to start the first clinical trials with more patients in 2023, in part through Onward Medical, the company he has created with Bloch for the future commercialization of this technology. The trials will still take a few years of work. “We’re going as fast as we can,” says the neuroscientist.
“These new results are spectacular”, says Filipe Barroso, a researcher in the neurorehabilitation group
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