A paraplegic manages to walk a distance of 4 meters – Health News .net

 

 

 
 

For more than 5 years as the young American Adam Fritz lost the use of his legs, as he thought would never be able to walk again, the California researchers managed the feat enable it to perform 4 meters on two legs. This is a great first that offers much hope for the disabled which the damaged spinal cord deprives them of the ability to walk.

A young man finds the opportunity to walk through a medical feat

Adam Fritz has agreed to participate in medical tests in California, the young American 28-year-old who lost the use of his legs there are more than 5 years, now moves exclusively by wheelchair. But when the California teams came to speak to him of an electroencephalogram that captures the brain’s electrical signals, Adam Fritz did not hesitate one second to volunteer for this world first.

This machine allows the brain through electrodes placed on the patient’s head to control both legs without having to go through the damaged spinal cord. The machine has many sensors that record Adam’s thoughts and turn them into brain waves. The order is thus given legs to walk again through other electrodes placed on the legs of the young patient.

The progress is spectacular

This is how researchers have managed the feat of walking again a patient whose legs are inactive for 5 years, but in order to get there, Adam has been forced to work long hours to strengthen his muscles. The technique is being run in, but the progress is spectacular, now, thousands of paraplegics worldwide have found hope through this team of researchers from the California state.

Dr An Do, who took charge of the program, explains that his team was able to demonstrate that despite an irreversible spinal cord, intuitive walk controlled by the brain was possible again, which is a great step forward for the paralyzed around the world!

“Even after years of paralysis, the brain can still generate quite powerful brain waves to allow the march,” commented Dr. An Do, one of the researchers involved in the study. “We have shown that after a complete lesion of the spinal cord, it can restore a walk intuitive, controlled by the brain,” he says. According to the research team, Adam Fritz would be the first patient paralyzed in both legs to walk again without the use of robotics.

Dr Zoran Nenadic, the lead researcher of the study. “We hope that an implant could allow an even greater level of control through better quality of brainwave recordings, he says. Such an implant may even transmit sensations to the brain, enabling the user to feel his legs. “

These findings offer real hope for people suffering from problems with the spinal cord and can not walk. The medical team says that further tests are needed to refine the results of their new brain-computer interface. If these future trials are successful, it will be possible to create integrated directly into the brain of patients implants to allow them to walk again.