A spinal cord injury is a life-altering event, and the effects, such as muscle weakness and paralysis, can dramatically disrupt a person’s life. While there is no cure for paralysis, there has been some progress in developing potential treatment options to improve symptoms. Still, much of it remains out of reach to many patients. A person with a complete spinal cord injury may benefit from a spinal cord stimulator, but cost, safety and patient willingness to undergo surgery are among the barriers to treatment.
Now, a group of engineers from Washington University St. Louis, led by Ismael Seáñez, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering and of neurosurgery at the School of Medicine, has begun work on a low-cost, noninvasive approach to spinal cord stimulation that offers affordable hope to patients. Their work, published July 25 in the Journal of Neural Engineering, uses a low-tech electrode array that effectively stimulates muscles in the legs in people with spinal cord injuries.
