E-Stimulation Early on Helps Spine Injury

Researchers said Thursday long-term electrical stimulation given early gives spine-injured patients hope for a cure down the road.

The team at the University of Iowa said that early intervention and electrical stimulation — which causes muscle contraction — reduces both severe osteoporosis and muscle atrophy experienced by patients with spinal-cord injury.

The researchers said this approach may also one day hold the key to curing spinal-cord injury altogether.

They noted that nearly all SCI patients develop severe osteoporosis and muscle atrophy after injury, with an average 30-percent bone-density loss in only three years.

The question is will an 18 year old injured today be a good candidate for that cure or repair if their bone is so brittle that it can’t bear weight or their muscles are virtually useless? one of the researchers said.

Saving bone mass in SCI patients is also key to warding off secondary complications including multiple fractures and kidney problems caused by excess calcium leached from the bones into the blood.

The long-range issues relate to helping people injured now remain good candidates for a future cure. The short-term effects are improving the patient’s health quality and preventing secondary complications, the researchers said.

The study team used a computer-controlled device to deliver electrical stimulation to the tibia, or lower leg bone, in one leg of each patient. The researchers also trained the targeted muscle and bone 20 to 30 minutes each day, five days a week.

After three years bone mass for the stimulated limbs was on average 32 percent greater than the untrained limbs, while the cross-sectional area of trained muscles averaged 30 percent larger than untrained muscles.

The findings appear in the Jan. 11 issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.