Three patients with spinal muscular atrophy had improved muscle strength and could walk farther after a month of daily spinal stimulation.
Research participant Doug McCullough uses the adaptive exercise bike during a testing session at the University of Pittsburgh.
So McCullough had low expectations when he arrived in Pittsburgh to have wires temporarily implanted in the part of his spine that controls leg muscles that are critical for walking. "I was like, 'Whoa, this is surreal!'"McCullough says."This was really the first time that I had seen an improvement." In both cases, the idea was to get more out of the relatively small number of nerve cells that remained intact.
Much of the improvement was maintained even when the stimulator wasn't turned on. Capogrosso thinks that's because stimulation had helped re-establish communication between the remaining motor neurons and other neurons involved in the circuit that allows walking.
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