Amazing non-invasive technique helps paralyzed move again

In a new study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, researchers at UCLA report that they have successfully helped completely paralyzed patients regain movement in their legs using non-invasive, non-surgical techniques designed to simulate a spinal cord.

According to senior author V. Reggie Edgerton, a distinguished professor of integrative biology and physiology, neurobiology, and neurosurgery at UCLA, and his colleagues, this is believed to be the first time that paralyzed patients have relearned voluntary leg movements without the need for surgery. In the study, five men regained the ability to rhythmically move their legs.

In a statement, Edgerton said that the results of the study “tell us we have to look at spinal cord injury in a new way,” and that while it will probably be several years before these techniques are widely available, he believes that doctors can now significantly improve the quality of life for a patient with severe injuries to the bundle of nerve fibers connecting the body to the brain.

Not yet clear whether or not they could walk again

In experiments conducted last year, Edgerton’s team were able to help four men who had been paralyzed for years move their legs, hips, ankles, and toes after epidural electrical stimulation of their spinal cords. However, that procedures required surgery to implant the stimulator, and the device remained active under a person’s skin for several years, the authors explained.

Earlier this year, Edgerton and his associates demonstrated that they could induce involuntary stepping movements in uninjured people using noninvasive stimulation, and the success of that study led the UCLA professor to investigate using the same approach for people who had been completely paralyzed. He recruited five male volunteers and set out to test his hypothesis.

Each of the five men were given one 45-minute training session per week for 18 weeks, and were given the anti-anxiety drug, buspirone, twice per day for four weeks. Electrodes were place on the skin, at the lower back and near the tailbone, and the patients were given a unique, painless series of electrical currents. They were able to regain voluntary control of their limbs quickly, indicating that they must have still had neural connections at the injury site.

He explained that the connections must have been dormant, and were awakened by the currents. “It was remarkable,” Edgerton said, as he and most other experts in the field believed that those who suffered such an injury would no longer have such neural connections. While his team does not yet know if these patients will be able to bear their own weight or walk again, the findings do reveal that voluntary control of the legs can be re-established.

(Image credit: parag gad/YouTube)