In just three months, doctors observed significant improvements in hip range of motion. Credit: Nadya Chetah/Shutterstock.com
A 33-year-old man who lost the use of his legs in a sports accident four years ago has walked again thanks to epidural electrical neurostimulation, according to the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan.
The breakthrough, the first of its kind in the world, was achieved by doctors and researchers from the MINE Lab at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa.
Andrea, the patient, was injured in a sporting accident that caused a severe spinal cord lesion. This winter, when he returned to the Adamello glacier with crampons, he immediately sent a photo to the doctors who had cared for him.
The results of the study have been published in Med by Cell Press. They document how the epidural electrical stimulation technique restored walking ability in a patient with a spinal cord injury at the thoracic vertebrae T11–T12 — a type of lesion that accounts for more than half of all spinal cord injuries.
Andrea was enrolled in the Neuro-SCS-001 clinical trial. Surgeons first implanted a spinal cord neurostimulator into the patient’s epidural space.
They then activated the stimulation, which allowed residual neural circuits to be reactivated. Andrea subsequently began an innovative rehabilitation programme, including exercises using virtual reality.
The team’s achievement was made possible not only by their scientific skill but also by Andrea’s perseverance. He not only agreed to undergo a surgery with no guarantees, but, as a committed sportsman, approached rehabilitation with discipline and determination.
In just three months, doctors observed significant improvements in hip range of motion, leg mobility and postural control. Gradually, Andrea began walking again with the help of a walker and orthotic devices. At the time of his hospital discharge, he could walk 58 metres in six minutes. Six months after surgery, he was able to walk a kilometre using only a walker and orthotics.
This result is a double source of pride for Italy
Not only is the team entirely Italian, but, as professor Pietro Mortini, head of neurosurgery at San Raffaele and full professor at the university, explains, “The essence of the success is also intrinsically Italian. Other countries do not invest as much in this technique due to differences in working methods. We managed to build a uniquely synergistic multidisciplinary team — neurosurgeons, neurobioengineers and rehabilitation experts — with an information exchange that surpassed the usual channels.”
All eyes now turn to the future. The trial protocol is nearing completion, after which an application can be made to ATS and the Lombardy Region to have the treatment recognised as a standard procedure.
“We’ve invented the wooden wheel,” says Mortini, “but we can get to the Ferrari tyre. And we will.”
The potential is enormous. For now, this technique is limited to paraplegics aged 18–55 without obesity or central nervous system conditions. But in future, it could be extended to tetraplegic patients as well.
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