Student Education News

Enabling spinal injury patients to walk again

Research carried out by Dr Ichiyama has led to the development of a rehabilitation training regime which allows an animal with spinal cord injury causing complete paralysis to walk again.

It has been estimated that there are over 1.25 million people in total in the USA who are living with spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injuries are the second most common cause of paralysis, with highly significant impacts on the quality of life for the patient and also in the cost to health care services. There is currently no approved treatment for recovery of the ability to walk in spinal injury patients. Research carried out by Dr Ichiyama from the Faculty of Biological Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues at University of California Los Angeles in the United States, has led to the development of a rehabilitation training regime which allows an animal with spinal cord injury causing complete paralysis to walk again. This has been achieved through a specific combination of exercise training, drug treatment and novel epidural stimulation of the spinal cord. The results attracted significant levels of attention worldwide, and a Research Centre in the USA applied the regime to a completely paralysed patient, with the result that the patient recovered the ability to stand and walk. Three years after the initial treatment, the patient is still able to walk (using the epidural stimulator), and has recovered bowel, bladder and sexual function.

Dr Ichiyama continues to carry out research to understand why this approach allows for recovery of function; the group in the USA have treated a further three patients, who have all shown similar levels of recovery.

30th October 2012