Paralysed patients able to walk again after undergoing world first brain surgery
2 December 2024, 19:03
Two people who were paralysed have been able to walk again after being implanted with electrodes in their brains.
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Both patients suffered catastrophic spinal injuries meaning they were reliant on a wheelchair prior to their operations.
However, the pair were able to walk short distances and even climb stairs thanks to a technique used by surgeons called deep brain stimulation.
The surgery “re-awakens” dormant nerve fibres in the spinal cord and re-establishes control of the leg muscles.
Wolfgang Jaeger, 54, broke his back in a skiing accident in 2006 but since his operation two years ago, he has worked with physiotherapists to restore movement of his limbs.
"If I want, I can walk a little bit, or go up and down the stairs, or if I need something in the kitchen where I have to stand up I can do it,” he told Sky News.
"[Technology] is getting better and better. In future I think we won't need a wheelchair again."It's a long way, but I think the dream comes true."
The two patients did not make a complete recovery from their injury, but were able to walk slowly over short distances with a stick or "walker".
The Swiss Federal Technology Institute in Lausanne (EPFL) used artificial intelligence to make the breakthrough.
They mapped all the neurons in the brain involved in helping rats and mice walk and unexpectedly found a region called the lateral hypothalamus had a role in walking.
After successful tests in rodents, the Swiss team then implanted electrodes in the lateral hypothalamus of the human patients.
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The technique is already widely used to control tremors in people with Parkinson's disease.
It is carried out while patients are wide awake in order for surgeons to be sure they have reached the right spot in the brain, with the right strength of stimulation.
Professor Jocelyne Bloch, who carried out the operations at Lausanne University Hospital, said: "Once the electrode was in place and we performed the stimulation the first patient immediately said, 'I feel my legs'.
"When we increased the stimulation she said, 'I feel the urge to walk!'"
Prof Gregoire Courtine, the lead neuroscientist on the research team and co-director at the NeuroRestore centre in Lausanne, said: "The research demonstrates that the brain is needed to recover from paralysis.
"We found how to tap into a small region of the brain that was not known to be involved in walking in order to engage residual [nerve] connections and augment neurological recovery."
The Lausanne team had already shown it is possible to restore movement by using implants in the spinal cord.
