Using electric shock to treat spinal cord injuries: Can it help restore hand strength and movement?

Treatment for spinal cord injuries improved hand and arm function in more than two-thirds of people who tried it.

This treatment consists of placing electrode pads on the skin above and below the injury site. It provides electrical stimulation to the spinal cord while the user undergoes rehabilitation.

This increases the excitability of the remaining nerves and improves their function during stimulation. Over time, people can make lasting improvements even when they’re not using the device. It seems to work by regrowing the nerves in the spine and making new connections, according to Gregoire Courtine at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Geneva.

“When you have a spinal cord injury, everyone thinks all you want is to be able to walk again,” says study participant Melanie Reid. “The most important thing is the working people. Sometimes a small profit can change lives.”

This approach is only suitable for people whose vertebrae have not been completely crushed or severed, as new nerves must have an intact portion of the spinal cord left to grow; This applies to more than two-thirds of people. .

The device, called ARC Therapy, is being developed by the Swiss company Onward Medical. There is no treatment for spinal cord injuries other than rehabilitation, and spinal cord injuries can leave you unable to walk or move your arms if the injury is in the upper spine.

Courtine’s team has also developed electrical implants for spinal cord injuries that have helped several patients regain some ability to walk, but this requires surgery.

The new approach, which involves applying electrode pads to the skin, was tested on 60 people with spinal cord injuries in their necks and varying degrees of hand function.

Participants underwent intensive hand and arm rehabilitation three times a week for two months, and then performed the same exercises for another two months while applying a stimulator. The primary goal of the trial was for participants to improve the function and strength of their hands and arms to a degree that would make a noticeable difference in their lives.When tested without the use of a stimulator at the end of the study, 43 people reached this threshold.

Reid, who broke his neck when he was struck by a horse 14 years ago, initially had good function in his right hand, but his left hand barely worked. Now, “her left hand is much stronger and her grip strength has come back a little bit,” she says. She said: “It was unusual to notice that my fingers and thumbs, which had previously been completely useless, suddenly gained strength and function.''

Previous studies testing this approach in rats have shown that stimulation causes nerves to regrow, but this has not been proven to occur in humans. Corteen says stimulators may provide greater functional gains if provided immediately after injury. The participant in this trial had been in an accident several years earlier.

rob brownstone Professors from University College London say that's a reasonable assumption: “Although the trial has only had a small number of patients, we hope to see exciting results in the future.”