Paralyzed Man Learns to Walk Again After Having Electrode Device Implanted on Spinal Cord
Jimmy Ravier/NeuroRestore
A man who lost the ability to walk after a 2017 motorcycle accident is taking his first steps this week thanks to revolutionary new technology.
After a complete spinal cord injury, Michel Roccati participated in a clinical trial to have an electrode device implanted in his spinal cord, which is now allowing him to stand and move around on his feet with the help of a walker, CNN reports.
Roccati, along with two other men in similar situations, were the recipients of the electrode device implanted directly into the area between the vertebrae and the spinal cord membrane, which receives currents from a pacemaker implanted under the skin of the abdomen.
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"I am free," Roccati told CNN. "I can walk wherever I want to."
The clinical trial, known as the STIMO trial, was led by Dr. Jocelyne Bloch of Lausanne University Hospital and Grégoire Courtine of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The results of the study were published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.
The study identifies the technology behind the device as epidural electrical stimulation (EES), which targets spinal segments and "restores walking in people with spinal cord injury."
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"Within a single day, activity-specific stimulation programs enabled these three individuals to stand, walk, cycle, swim and control trunk movements," the study said.
With the help of software on a tablet, researchers, as well as the patients themselves, were able send electrical pulses to activate previously paralyzed muscles.
Previously, people who were completely paralyzed but retained sensation were able to walk again after several months of intensive rehabilitation through electrical stimulation to the spinal cord, but the STIMO trial showed results much faster.
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Within a week of their surgeries, all three participants in the trial could walk independently with the use of body-weight support from parallel bars and an overhead harness.
"For the first time, we have not only immediate effect — though training is still important — but also individuals with no sensation, no movement whatsoever, have been able to regain full standing and walking independently of the laboratory," Courtine told CNN.
Next, the team behind STIMO is hoping to expand to a larger clinical trial in the U.S., but it will take another three to four years for the technology to become commercially available.
In a press briefing last week, the researchers announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved a "breakthrough devices" designation to expedite the process, CNN reports.
