The first patient to receive a spinal implant to treat advanced Parkinson’s disease has described experiencing “a rebirth” after the treatment allowed him to walk again without falling over.
Marc, 63, from Bordeaux, France, was diagnosed with the degenerative disease more than 20 years ago and had developed severe mobility problems, including balance impairments and freezing of gait.
But the Swiss team, who have a longstanding programme to develop brain-machine interfaces to overcome paralysis, hope that their technology could offer an entirely new approach to treating movement deficits in those with Parkinson’s disease.
“It is impressive to see how by electrically stimulating the spinal cord in a targeted manner, in the same way as we have done with paraplegic patients, we can correct walking disorders caused by Parkinson’s disease,” said Jocelyne Bloch, neurosurgeon and professor at the CHUV Lausanne University hospital, who co-led the work.
First, the team developed a personalised anatomical map of Marc’s spinal cord that identified the precise locations that were involved in signalling to the leg to move.
The patient wears a movement sensor on each leg and when walking is initiated the implant automatically switches on and begins delivering pulses of stimulation to the spinal neurons.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The first patient to receive a spinal implant to treat advanced Parkinson’s disease has described experiencing “a rebirth” after the treatment allowed him to walk again without falling over.
Marc, 63, from Bordeaux, France, was diagnosed with the degenerative disease more than 20 years ago and had developed severe mobility problems, including balance impairments and freezing of gait.
But the Swiss team, who have a longstanding programme to develop brain-machine interfaces to overcome paralysis, hope that their technology could offer an entirely new approach to treating movement deficits in those with Parkinson’s disease.
“It is impressive to see how by electrically stimulating the spinal cord in a targeted manner, in the same way as we have done with paraplegic patients, we can correct walking disorders caused by Parkinson’s disease,” said Jocelyne Bloch, neurosurgeon and professor at the CHUV Lausanne University hospital, who co-led the work.
First, the team developed a personalised anatomical map of Marc’s spinal cord that identified the precise locations that were involved in signalling to the leg to move.
The patient wears a movement sensor on each leg and when walking is initiated the implant automatically switches on and begins delivering pulses of stimulation to the spinal neurons.
The original article contains 622 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!