Doctors report that four paralyzed men haven been able to move their legs for the first time in years after electrical stimulation on their spinal chords. The four were Americans, although the story of their amazing progress was reported in the British Journal Brain.
The spinal cord acts like a high speed information line, carrying electrical messages from the brain to the rest of the body. People who have sustained a severe spinal injury damaging the spinal cord cannot move their limbs and other body parts because the electrical message cannot get through to those limbs. A team at the University of Louisville and the Universtiy of California have been pioneering electrical stimulation of the spinal cord below the injury site.
One of the four men benefiting from this revolutionary new treatment is Dustin Shillcox. Shillcox was severely injured in a motor vehicle crash that broke his back and damaged his spinal cord, causing complete paralysis and loss of sensation below the injury site. As part of this new treatment, an electrical stimulator was implanted into his spine. Once the stimulator switch was turned on, he almost immediately noticed that he could voluntarily move his right leg, toes and ankle.
After surgery and hundreds of rehabilitation sessions, Shillcox is now able to bear weight on his legs and walk a few steps with support. He has also regained control over many of his bodily functions. Shillcox said that his quality of life has improved 100%, and is now confident in going out in public.
Scientists are not certain how the stimulation helps, but researches believe that the electrical stimulation makes the lower spinal cord more excitable, so that it is able to respond when weak signals can make some pathway from the brain.
Dr. Mark Bacon, director of research at the charity Spinal Research, told the BBC:
“Significantly, it does strongly suggest that other repair treatments in development may only need to achieve relatively rudimentary additional connections between the brain and the cord below the injury to access functional capacity which will improve quality of life.”