Treatment of paralysis: a new step

American scientists have restored the ability of a paralyzed person to move his arm

Ilya Vedmedenko, Naked Science

A person diagnosed with quadriplegia was able to move a paralyzed arm for the first time. This opens up broad prospects for the scientific world in the treatment of paralysis.

A snapshot from an article on the Case Western Reserve University website
Man with quadriplegia employs injury bridging technologies to move again—just by thinking – VM

Quadriplegia is partial or complete paralysis of all four limbs. The cause may be a disease or injury of the spinal cord of the cervical spine. Faced with this problem, people completely or partially do not feel pain, touch and temperature. They have impaired blood circulation and lost control of the intestines and bladder. In addition, with quadriplegia, the functioning of sweat glands and thermoregulation are disrupted. The latter leads to the fact that patients are much harder than healthy people to tolerate heat and cold.

Scientists from the USA have made an important step towards effective therapy of this disease. Using the method of functional electrical stimulation (FES), they helped 53-year-old Bill Kochevar, injured in an accident, partially recover. Scientists have placed special electronic implants in the area of the motor cortex of the victim's brain, which decode brain signals. Sensors were implanted in the patient's forearm, reading these signals through a computer interface and stimulating the arm. The FES method and a special mechanism attached to the arm made it possible to partially restore the mobility of the paralyzed limb.

The authors of the article published in the Lancet journal report that the study for the first time demonstrated the possibility of overcoming spinal cord injury and restoring some functions of a patient diagnosed with quadriplegia. Now Bill Kochevar can already drink a glass of water on his own and take food using his restored arm. Her movements, however, are rather slow, and immediately before the operation, the injured person had to undergo a long course of training.   

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  31.03.2017