A man paralyzed in the lower body from a spinal cord injury has been able to walk again thanks to an implant developed by a Swiss research team. For the first time, a person whose spinal cord has been completely cut off signals is able to walk freely.
The study was published in the medical journal Nature Medicine.
Mikel Lokat, from Italy, was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident five years ago. His spinal cord was completely damaged and both legs were unconscious. However, now that an electronic implant has been surgically implanted in his spinal cord, he is now able to walk.
It was the first time in the world that a person with such a severe spinal cord injury was able to walk like Lokat.
The team stressed that this is not a treatment for spinal cord injuries, explaining that the technique is still too complex to use in everyday life. Still, they welcomed the results, saying it was a big step forward in improving the quality of life for patients.
I met Lokat in the lab that made the implants. "The technology is "a gift to me." I could get up, walk where I wanted to go, and climb the stairs. It's almost a normal life. ”
It's not just technology that has helped Rocardi recover. This young Italian man had a will of steel. Immediately after the accident, Lokat said he was determined to recover as much as possible.
"Before the accident, I was boxing, running and training in the gym," he said. But after the accident, I couldn't do what I liked. So I try not to get frustrated. I've never stopped reinventing, and I hope the problem goes away. "
Professor Joslyn Bloch, a neurosurgeon at the Neurotherapy and Neuromodulation Institute (LNTM), was surprised at the speed of Lokat's recovery. Professor Bloch implanted an implant in Ms. Lokat and attached electrodes to each nerve.
He said: "I was very surprised. Mikel's recovery was astonishing. We should be able to use this technology to help him recover more.
Dr Ram Hariharan, an expert at Sheffield North General Hospital in the UK, also expressed support for the study. Dr. Hari Harlan was not directly involved in the study, but he is president of the Spinal Injury Association.
"The research team did something unprecedented," he said. I've never heard of a study in which electrodes were implanted (in patients who completely lost spinal cord signals) to move muscles and improve balance so they could stand and walk.
But he said more clinical trials are needed before it can be convinced it's an effective treatment. "If we can get more patients involved, we can prove that it's safe in the first place, and that it can make a huge difference in living conditions." Then we can move on.
The nerves that run through the spinal cord are responsible for sending signals from the brain to the legs. When these nerves are damaged, for example due to injury, they become paralyzed.
In Lokat's case, the spinal cord was completely damaged and there was no signal in the legs at all. By sending a signal directly from the implant to his leg, he is now able to walk, but only if the implant is turned on.
Due to the presence of implants, he became a father.
So far, 9 patients have had implants installed and regained the ability to walk.
However, no one has been using this technology to help them walk in their daily lives. He said it was because it was too complicated at this stage. Instead, the implant was used for walking exercises. Moving muscles can improve health and allow the body's ability to move slightly.
David Müzi, one of the first to participate in clinical trials of the implant, suffered a severe spinal cord injury during a sports accident in 2010, but like Lokat, he is now able to walk with a walker by moving the implant. In addition, his health has returned to the stage when he and his partner Jenny are able to have a child.
Their daughter Zoey is now a year old. In our interview, Zoe ran towards Mzi using a baby walker and happily patted her father.
It's really great," Mzi said, with parental pride on his face.
It was a lot of fun. It was the first time I had taken a walk with my daughter like this. She uses children's walkers and I use my own.
Implants have also helped Mzee's life in other, less obvious, but equally important ways.
She said: "My low blood pressure has improved. This has always been a problem. At first I didn't notice, I just thought I was tired.
"But when I found out that the implants would raise my blood pressure, I thought, 'Wow, this is a way of life!'" But when I found out that the implants raised my blood pressure, I thought, 'Wow, I can live this way!' '。
"It's small things like this that make a huge difference."
Improve the quality of life of patients
There is still a long way to go before this technology can be used to help paralyzed patients walk. Dr Gregul-Curtin, who leads the technology research and development team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), said: "This technology is still a long way off before it is regularly used to help paralyzed patients walk.
This is not a cure for spinal cord injury, but it is an important step in improving the quality of life of patients. This technology will empower many people. This gives them the ability to stand up and take a few steps. That's not enough, but it's still a big step forward.
Stem cell research is still in the clinical stage, although it is believed that stem cells need to be used for spinal cord regeneration to heal the damaged spinal cord. Dr. Curtin believes that when neuroregenerative technology is available, it can be used in combination with their own implantation techniques.
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