Paralysis Breakthrough

The Walk Again Project by Brazilian scientists has restored patients’ ability to move their legs.

10:18 18 August 2016

Scientists based in Sao Paulo, Brazil made an astonishing breakthrough allowing paralysed patients restore their ability to move their legs.

 

The Walk Again Project was developed with the goal to enable paraplegics to move about using the exoskeleton controlled by their thoughts. However, during the training with an exoskeleton linked to the brain, the eight patients were able to recover their sense of touch and movement below the injury to their spine, which was previously thought to have been completely severed.

 

Researchers now believe that a few nerves survived and were reactivated by the training, which may have rewired circuits in the brain.

 

The researchers said: “While patient one was initially not even able to stand using braces when placed in an orthostatic posture, after 10 months of training the same patient became capable of walking using a walker, braces and the assistance of one therapist.

 

“At this stage, this patient became capable of producing voluntary leg movements mimicking walking, while suspended overground.

 

“In another example, patient seven … was capable of walking with two crutches and lower limb orthoses ... while requiring no assistance by a therapist.”