Man paralysed from waist down makes history by walking again using mind-controlled implant to power his legs

Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by mvea

A 29-year-old man who was paralysed from the waist down after a snowmobile accident has made medical history by walking independently after pioneering surgery.

Doctors in the US state of Minnesota implanted a remote-controlled electrode in the patient’s back to stimulate surviving nerves in his spinal cord.

Thanks to the groundbreaking surgery, Jered Chinnock, from Tomah, Wisconsin, was able to stand up and walk just over 100 metres – the length of an American football – while pushing a front-wheeled walker.

It was the first time Mr Chinnock had walked by himself since his accident on the slopes five years ago.

“It’s very exciting, but still very early in the research stage,” said neurosurgeon Dr Kendall Lee, who co-led the team from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

“The reason why this is important is because the patient's own mind, thought, was able to drive movement in his legs. Just as important is that we were able to get him to stand independently and take his own steps.”

Mr Chinnock said: “The walking side of it isn’t something where I just leave my wheelchair behind and away I go.”

But the Wisconsin man said he was hopeful that he might one day be able to “leave the wheelchair behind, even if it is to walk to the refrigerator.”

Dr Lee explained that as soon as the remote-controlled electrode was turned off, Mr Chinnock became paralysed again.

The innovative technique used by the Mayo Clinic team, which was reported in the journal Nature Medicine, involved inserting an electrode in the epidural space – the fat-filled hollow region surrounding the spinal cord.

A battery was also implanted in the abdomen and was connected to the electrode via a wire hidden beneath the skin.

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Doctors are excited by the breakthrough, but they still need to establish exactly how electrically stimulating a severed spinal cord was able to restore voluntary movement.

The Mayo Clinic team believes it may depend on residual nerve fibres keeping open a channel of communication with the brain.

“Now I think the real challenge starts, and that's understanding how this happened, why it happened, and which patients will respond,” said co-principal investigator Dr Kristin Zhao, director of the Mayo Clinic's Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory.

In the first week after surgery, Mr Chinnock had to use a harness to reduce the risk of falling.

After 25 weeks he no longer needed a harness. And over the course of a year, he achieved milestones that included walking 102 metres and walking continuously for 16 minutes.

While able to stand and walk when he wanted, he still required the aid of a wheeled walking frame.

Zeraphil on September 25th, 2018 at 13:16 UTC »

Having worked on restoration of locomotion before my academia exit, this fills me with happiness. Reggie Edgerton has been working on this for what feels like forever, and I'm glad to see it finally reach a human trial. There's so many breakthroughs in this one event that took an entire community of scientists and years to overcome. I'm excited for the future of SCI treatment, truly.

qualityKnight on September 25th, 2018 at 12:38 UTC »

How were leg muscles able to work after 5 years of no activity and atrophy?

mvea on September 25th, 2018 at 11:13 UTC »

The title of the post is a copy and paste from the title, subtitle and second paragraph of the linked popular press article here :

Man paralysed from waist down makes history by walking again using mind-controlled implant to power his legs

‘The reason why this is important is because the patient's own mind, thought, was able to drive movement in his legs,' scientist says

Doctors in the US state of Minnesota implanted a remote-controlled electrode in his back to stimulate surviving nerves in the patient’s spinal cord.

Journal Reference:

Megan L. Gill, Peter J. Grahn, Jonathan S. Calvert, Margaux B. Linde, Igor A. Lavrov, Jeffrey A. Strommen, Lisa A. Beck, Dimitry G. Sayenko, Meegan G. Van Straaten, Dina I. Drubach, Daniel D. Veith, Andrew R. Thoreson, Cesar Lopez, Yury P. Gerasimenko, V. Reggie Edgerton, Kendall H. Lee, Kristin D. Zhao.

Neuromodulation of lumbosacral spinal networks enables independent stepping after complete paraplegia.

Nature Medicine, 2018;

DOI: 10.1038/s41591-018-0175-7

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-018-0175-7

Abstract:

Spinal sensorimotor networks that are functionally disconnected from the brain because of spinal cord injury (SCI) can be facilitated via epidural electrical stimulation (EES) to restore robust, coordinated motor activity in humans with paralysis1,2,3. Previously, we reported a clinical case of complete sensorimotor paralysis of the lower extremities in which EES restored the ability to stand and the ability to control step-like activity while side-lying or suspended vertically in a body-weight support system (BWS)4. Since then, dynamic task-specific training in the presence of EES, termed multimodal rehabilitation (MMR), was performed for 43 weeks and resulted in bilateral stepping on a treadmill, independent from trainer assistance or BWS. Additionally, MMR enabled independent stepping over ground while using a front-wheeled walker with trainer assistance at the hips to maintain balance. Furthermore, MMR engaged sensorimotor networks to achieve dynamic performance of standing and stepping. To our knowledge, this is the first report of independent stepping enabled by task-specific training in the presence of EES by a human with complete loss of lower extremity sensorimotor function due to SCI.