Spinal cord stimulation, physical therapy help paralyzed man stand, walk with assistance

Spinal cord stimulation and physical therapy have helped a man paralyzed since 2013 regain his ability to stand and walk with assistance. The results, achieved in a research collaboration between Mayo Clinic and UCLA, are reported in Nature Medicine. With an implanted stimulator turned on, the man, Jered Chinnock, was able to step with a front-wheeled walker while trainers provided occasional assistance. He made 113 rehabilitation visits to Mayo Clinic over a year, and achieved milestones during individual sessions: Total distance: 111 yards (102 meters) — about the length of a football field Total number of steps: 331 Total minutes walking with assistance:16 minutes Step speed: 13 yards per minute ( meters per second) “What this is teaching us is that those networks of neurons below a spinal cord injury still can function after paralysis,” says Kendall Lee, M.D., Ph.D., co-principal investigator, neurosurgeon and director of Mayo Clinic’s Neural Engineering Laboratories. In the study, Chinnock’s spinal