HEALTH NEWS.

ONE STEP CLOSER FOR PARAPLEGICS TO WALK AGAIN.

There is hope for people that have become paraplegics and stopped walking due to a spinal injury.

A new study conducted by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the University Hospital of Lausanne in Switzerland and published in Nature and Nature Neuroscience magazine, showed that the implantation of electrodes within the spinal cord stimulated certain muscle groups within the legs. Researchers managed to enable three patients to walk by co-ordinating the messages given by the brain and connecting them to the electric stimulation that was happening within the spinal cord. Both of these mechanisms allowed patients to walk.

Through this study, researchers managed to allow these three patients to walk distances up to a kilometre, and that muscle activity was still found even after the device had been switched off. They used the elasticity present within the nervous system to be able to restructure their nerve fibres.

These researchers are developing new rehabilitation programmes based on the results of these studies and these will be implemented in the future in hospitals and clinics worldwide.