Continual direct epidural stimulation of the spinal cord and extensive task-specific locomotor training enabled a young man paralyzed below the waist to stand up from his wheelchair and bear his full weight with assistance provided only for balance.
With continuous epidural stimulation, the patient, Rob Summers, now 25 years old, also took a few assisted steps on a treadmill and has recovered some voluntary leg movement.
This approach, tested extensively in animal models of spinal cord injury, "might reactivate previously silent spared neural circuits or promote plasticity," investigators say in their report published online May 20 in The Lancet.
The 11-member research team was led by neuroscientists Susan Harkema, PhD, of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Research Center, University of Louisville, and V. Reggie Edgerton, PhD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles.
"These interventions could be a viable clinical approach for functional recovery after severe paralysis," they conclude.
