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There is now hope for the 2.5 million paralyzed people in
the world. An Anglo-Polish
medical team at the University College of London allowed a man with a
severed spinal cord to recover the ability to walk. The firefighter was paralyzed
from the neck down in a knife attack. A revolutionary implant of regenerative
cells has repaired the spinal cord, restoring sensation and muscle control to
his legs. The technique was put into practice by surgeons in Wroclaw, Poland.
This represents the first-ever instance where a complete
spinal paralysis has been reversed. The
therapy uses specialist human cells which repair damage to nasal nerves to
enable spinal nerve fibers to re-grow and bridge a severed cord. The harvested
cells, known as olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), were implanted into an 8mm
gap in the spinal cord of the patient. The cells were found in the olfactory
bulb. This part of the brain processes smell and the cells here are constantly
regenerating. The OEC implants slowly restored the nerve fiber connections
between both sides of the injury, returning feeling and then movement to the
patient's legs.
Six months after the procedure, the patient was able to report
pain from a pressure sore on his right hip - the first time he had felt
sensation in his lower body since he became paralyzed. Ten months after the
surgery he was able to walk with the aid of braces and a walk frame. Nineteen
months after surgery, he was able to tell the direction of movement of his feet
in tests with up to 85% accuracy and could tell the difference between movement
of his toes and his whole foot.
Image Credit
The group is now looking to raise more money to fund surgery
in Poland for the next round of patients to test and refine the implant
technique over the next five years. This is an important first step in finding
a cure for paralysis.
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Re: Reverse Paralysis
