Neurostimulation makes a paraplegic walk, it's the first time

Four years ago he lost the use of his legs due to a sports accident that caused a severe spinal cord injury. Today Andrea, 33, has started walking again thanks to epidural electrical neurostimulation.

The result, the first in the world, was obtained by doctors and researchers from the MINE Lab of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital and the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa. When Andrea went with crampons to the Adamello glacier this winter, he immediately sent a photo to the doctors who treated him. The result of the study was published in Med by Cell Press and documents the recovery, thanks to the technique of epidural electrical stimulation, of walking in a paraplegic patient with a dorsal spinal cord injury at the level of the last thoracic vertebrae, T11-T12. A type of injury that represents over half of the cases of spinal cord injuries. Andrea was included in the Neuro-SCS-001 clinical trial. The researchers first surgically implanted a spinal neurostimulator in the patient's epidural space. Then they activated the stimulation and this allowed them to 'rekindle' some residual nervous circuits. At that point the patient underwent an innovative rehabilitation, with exercises in virtual reality. The work of the team of researchers brought a unique result in a very short time also thanks to the perseverance of Andrea, who not only chose to undergo an operation without certainties but, as a good athlete, applied himself consistently to training. In just three months, the doctors saw a significant increase in the range of motion of his hip, an improvement in the mobility of his legs and an improvement in posture control. Andrea gradually managed to walk with a walker and braces. And, if upon discharge he was already able to walk 58 meters in six minutes, six months after the operation Andrea was able to walk a kilometer using only a walker and braces. Behind this result is a doubly Italian pride. Not only is the team all Italian, but the intrinsic reason for the success is intimately Italian, explains to ANSA Professor Pietro Mortini, head of Neurosurgery at San Raffaele and full professor of Neurosurgery at the University of the same name, leading the team. "The rest of the world does little work on this technique due to work styles that exist in other countries. We have managed to create a unique multidisciplinary team in synergy: neurosurgeons, neurobioengineers and rehabilitators. With an exchange of information that has gone beyond the channels usually used". Now the focus is on the future. Tomorrow the protocol will be closed and then authorization can be requested from ATS and the Lombardy Region to treat this technique as a routine operation. The possibilities are enormous. If today this type of technique is restricted to paraplegics between 18 and 55 years old, not overweight and without central nervous system diseases, in the future it could also be extended to tetraplegics. "We invented the wooden wheel - concludes Professor Mortini - but we can get to the Ferrari tire. And we will get there".