A promising non-invasive technique can help paralysed limbs move
All that’s needed is electricity and exercise
FOURTEEN YEARS ago, Melanie Reid, a journalist, fell off a horse and broke her neck. The injury to her spinal cord left her paralysed, limiting the function of her four limbs and torso—a condition known as tetraplegia. For more than a decade her left hand was incapable of either sensation or motion. Now, however, Ms Reid can not only move that hand; she can also, as she puts it, practise the “right to put my hair in a ponytail”.
Ms Reid’s remarkable—if incomplete—recovery required neither surgery nor medication, but, rather, exercise and electricity. She was one of 60 patients from test sites across three countries to receive a novel form of non-invasive spinal-cord stimulation, known as ARCEX, pioneered by Grégoire Courtine of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and colleagues. The results of the trial, published in Nature Medicine on May 20th, suggest it may have a promising future.
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