The three men in the new trial were all injured at least a year before implantation.
Tokyo, Japan:
In 2017, Michel Roccati suffered a motorcycle accident that left his lower body completely paralyzed. He was walking again in 2020, thanks to a groundbreaking new spinal cord implant.
The implant sends electrical pulses to his muscles, mimics how the brain works, and could one day help people with severe spinal cord injuries stand, walk and exercise.
It builds on long-term research using electrical pulses to improve the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries, including a 2018 study by the same team that helped people with partial lower body paralysis walk again.
“It was a very emotional experience,” Roccati told reporters about the first time the electrical pulses were activated and he took a step.
He was one of three patients involved in the study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, all of whom were unable to move their lower bodies after an accident.
Shortly after the six-centimeter implant was inserted, the three steps were able to take place and the pulses were fine-tuned.
“These electrodes were longer and larger than the electrodes we had previously implanted, and this new technology allowed us to access more muscle,” said Jocelyne Bloch, a neurosurgeon at Lausanne University Hospital who helped lead the trial.
Those first steps, while breathtaking for the researchers and their patients, were difficult, requiring support beams and significant upper body strength.
But the patients were able to begin rehabilitation immediately, and within four months Roccati was able to walk using only a balance frame.
“It’s not like it’s a miracle right away, not by a long shot,” cautioned Gregoire Courtine, a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology who led the research with Bloch.
But with practice, Roccati can now stand for several hours and walk almost a kilometer. The Italian described that thanks to the implant, he can look clients in the eye, drink a drink at a standing table and shower while standing.
He and others in the process were also able to climb stairs, swim and canoe.
‘I see the improvement’
The improvements depend on the electrical stimulation, which is activated via a computer worn by the patient, which activates a pattern of pulses.
Two of the patients can now activate their muscles a little without electrical pulses, but only minimally.
In comparison, some patients with partial lower body paralysis treated in a previous study are able to move and stand their previously immobile legs without stimulation.
The three men in the new trial were all injured at least a year before the implant, and Bloch hopes to try the technology sooner after an accident.
“What we all think is that if you try it sooner, it will have more effect,” she said.
There are challenges: In early recovery, a patient’s capacity is still fluctuating, making it difficult to establish a baseline to measure progress, and ongoing medical treatment and pain can hinder rehabilitation.
Until now, the implants are also only suitable for people with an injury above the lower thoracic spinal cord, the part that runs from the base of the neck to the abdomen, because it requires six centimeters of healthy spinal cord.
The idea of using electrical pulses to target paralysis grew out of technology used to regulate pain, and the researchers said they saw room for further applications.
They have also shown that it can regulate low blood pressure in patients with spinal cord injuries and plan to release a study on its use in severe Parkinson’s disease soon.
The team warned that much work still needs to be done before the implant is available for treatment outside of clinical trials, but said they receive about five messages a day from patients seeking help.
Next, they plan to miniaturize the computer that controls the pulses so that it can be implanted in patients and controlled with a smartphone.
They expect this to be possible this year and have plans for large-scale trials involving 50-100 patients in the United States and then in Europe.
Roccati said he activates the implant daily at home and is getting stronger.
“I see the improvement every day,” he said.
“I feel better when I use it.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
