Rob Summers was completely paralysed below the chest in a road accident in 2006.
But now, thanks to new research, he can stand for several minutes, take repeated steps on a treadmill and voluntarily move his hips, knees, ankles and toes. He has also regained some sexual and bladder function.
Mr Summer's treatment in the United States was described as a "breakthrough" by the scientists involved.
For someone who for four years was unable to even move a toe, to have the freedom to stand on my own is the most amazing feeling. Paraplegic Rob Summers
Professor Susan Harkema said: "This is a breakthrough. It opens up a huge opportunity to improve the daily functioning of these individuals...but we have a long road ahead."
Mr Summers said: "This procedure has completely changed my life. For someone who for four years was unable to even move a toe, to have the freedom and ability to stand on my own is the most amazing feeling.
"To be able to pick up my foot and step down again was unbelievable, but beyond all of that my sense of well-being has changed. My physique and muscle tone has improved greatly, so much that most people don’t even believe I am paralyzed. I believe that epidural stimulation will get me out of this chair."
How the treatment works
The unprecedented results of the research were reported in The Lancet, where the scientists further explained how the treatment worked.
Mr Summer's treatment involved a combination of a process called epidural spinal cord stimulation and repeated motion training.
Through a device in his back which stimulated Mr Summer's spinal cord, the scientists could send signals which mimicked the signals sent by the brain to initiate movement, a technique known as direct epidural stimulation.
Once that signal was given via this stimulation, his spinal cord's "neural network", combined with sensory input from the legs, could direct the movements necessary to stand - and ultimately step with assistance on a treadmill.
The team had to re-train Mr Summer's spinal cord "neural networks" in order to be able to act on these signals - a process which took more than two years of motion training. The electrostimulation device was then surgically implanted into Mr Summer's back, where it could stimulate the spinal cord.
I knew things like this were coming someday - the fundamental science of it is close to two decades old, after all - but I didn't expect something of this magnitude anywhere near this soon. Very exciting news, a breakthrough indeed!
Although it's probably not yet mature enough to be used on a regular basis, this technology should eventually overcome one of the most crippling injuries humans can endure. Bravo for that!
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As someone with very minimal medical knowledge, what this does is basically bridge the gap in his spinal nerves created by his injury, yes? So the big advance is improving the connections to the point where all the complicated signals that go across go correctly, which was too complicated before this? I hope I understood correctly.
This brings great hope to me. I am not paraplegic but I have a severely damaged optic nerve. If they can do this now, perhaps in a few years they can help me.
Even if they can't, helping paraplegics stand on there own is an AWESOME achievement in it's own right. And this is just the first step (no pun intended on that one).
Woooooo! I think I'm going to drink a few toasts to those doctors tonight!
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Even if he can "only" stand and take a few steps, that's a massive improvement. Holy crap, I can seriously say this is one of those things I was hoping to see in my lifetime, and here I am.
Darmalus wrote:As someone with very minimal medical knowledge, what this does is basically bridge the gap in his spinal nerves created by his injury, yes? So the big advance is improving the connections to the point where all the complicated signals that go across go correctly, which was too complicated before this? I hope I understood correctly.
The article is scant on details, and I would too appreciate some more explanation, but from what I understood, they didn't actually repair his spinal cord, but readjusted the signal pathways? Something like that. We've known for a long time the nervous system is enormously redundant, save for some critical pieces of it, it looks like the researches simply took advantage of that quality.
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PeZook wrote:Even if he can "only" stand and take a few steps, that's a massive improvement. Holy crap, I can seriously say this is one of those things I was hoping to see in my lifetime, and here I am.
Darmalus wrote:As someone with very minimal medical knowledge, what this does is basically bridge the gap in his spinal nerves created by his injury, yes? So the big advance is improving the connections to the point where all the complicated signals that go across go correctly, which was too complicated before this? I hope I understood correctly.
The article is scant on details, and I would too appreciate some more explanation, but from what I understood, they didn't actually repair his spinal cord, but readjusted the signal pathways? Something like that. We've known for a long time the nervous system is enormously redundant, save for some critical pieces of it, it looks like the researches simply took advantage of that quality.
In short:
They didn't do anything to his spinal cord directly. Rather, they used the spinal cord, which has nervous system abilities but is mostly under the control of the brain, to do its job, which is to interpret electrical impulses and transform them into motor function. The problem is that the path from the brain to the lower spinal cord was severed in the car accident, so even though all the pieces worked, the human machine was broken. They used the ESCS device to give the lower spinal cord the correct electrical signals to basically turn on the nerves. They still needed direction from Mr. Summers' brain, though, or else it would be useless to him. Remaining nervous connections, far too rudimentary to make things work by themselves, were able to pick up the rest of the job after Mr. Summers spent a long time doing physical therapy to train his brain to use other connections, routing around the break.
EDIT: Note that Mr. Summers' spinal cord was not completely severed. It is unlikely that this technique would work on somebody with no connectivity left.
Yeah, uh...not to be a downer, but according to the actual text of the research paper that Feil posted, the guy could apparently already walk 6 meters on his own before the treatment started. They didn't make someone who was completely paralyzed able to walk again; rather, they took someone who needed to re-learn how to walk due to major nerve damage (but who still had significant nerve connections between his brain and legs) and discovered that if they incorporated this ESCS thingy into the therapy, it seemed to cause the patient to recover walking ability faster/better than physical therapy alone.
sciguy wrote:Yeah, uh...not to be a downer, but according to the actual text of the research paper that Feil posted, the guy could apparently already walk 6 meters on his own before the treatment started. They didn't make someone who was completely paralyzed able to walk again; rather, they took someone who needed to re-learn how to walk due to major nerve damage (but who still had significant nerve connections between his brain and legs) and discovered that if they incorporated this ESCS thingy into the therapy, it seemed to cause the patient to recover walking ability faster/better than physical therapy alone.
To clarify, the paper is not about Mr. Summers. It is about an employment of similar technology on similar problems, with lesser goals and lesser results (although the results suggest the possibility of such results as were achieved for Mr. Summers). Note the date. The study took place six years ago.
