Soft Spinal Implants Might Help In Spinal Injuries

A soft, implantable device from e-Dura was shown in a Science study to help rats who had a spinal cord injury regain some movement.

David Essig, MD, attending orthopedic surgeon at the North Shore-LIJ Health System, says this device may provide people with some small, incremental help with their spinal cord injuries. Dr. Essig, also part of the North Shore-LIJ Spine Center, notes that this would be most suitable for people who have had a traumatic spinal cord injury and would not be as beneficial for people with paralysis caused by tumors or other sources.

“I think that the ultimate goals, with regard to restoring neurologic function, probably rest in the realm of biologics, and by that I mean things like stem cell technologies, which could actually replace or repopulate the damaged nerve cells of the spinal cord,” Dr. Essig says. “The main thing for the future, I think, is going to be stem-cell type technologies or cell-based therapies that will help regrow, regenerate the nerves that were damaged and help to naturally regrow the neural pathways rather than apply an external stimulator, which is essentially what this is.”

It’s important to help paralyzed people with their mobility because it has a great impact on their overall health.

“Any chance to help improve the mobility of these patients can result in dramatic improvements not only in their function but also in their life expectancy,” Dr. Essig says.

To see a video about this, click here: http://bit.ly/1IrUETn