BBC News Monday February 7, 2022 “Paralysed man with severed spine walks thanks to implant” By Pallab Ghosh
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Summary by 2244
Image from ScienceAlert.COM
For “the first time someone who has had a complete cut to their spinal cord has been able to walk again, thanks to an implant developed by a team of Swiss researchers.” (Published in Nature Medicine) The electric implant was “surgically attached” to the patient’s spine. The “technology is still too complicated to be used in everyday life” but the patient reports it “‘is a gift to me…I stand up, walk where I want to go…it’s almost normal life.’” There’s a consensus that the patient was unique in his determination to walk again that helped make this progress possible.
The implant is “expertly attached to individual nerve fibers.” This is an unexpected success but “more clinical trials [are] needed…before [another researcher] could be convinced that it was an effective treatment.” It must be proved safe and effective in clinical trials before “it can be taken forward.”
Although this patient had a completely severed spinal cord, the implant “sends signals directly to his legs enabling him to walk, but only when the implant is on.” A total of nine patients have used the device so far, not in daily life but to “practice walking.” Such practice can help improve health and may “restore a little bit of movement.”
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