A few years ago while I was talking with a close friend, I brought up the subject of full body regeneration as a joke (that was me watching too much anime that time) and we debated whether that was possible to happen in the future, that being a hundred years or a million years from now.
Although this is not the case I am reporting here, the breakthrough technique that has been developed by scientists of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, showed me that when it comes to science and innovation, dreams are not unachievable.
Slight restoration of hand and arm movement for quadriplegics, is a small step towards the big goal that is, full body movement restoration for people with spinal cord injuries.
The biggest gain though is not what is does for science, but the betterment of quality of life of the people suffering with spinal cord injuries.
What they basically achieved with this technique is improving the communication between the brain and muscles, by attaching healthy nerves on the upper arms to damaged nerves in the hands and arms.
It has to be noted though that this can be done to patients with injuries on the C6-C7 vertebrae (lower bones of the neck) and not on the C1-C5 vertebrae.
Helping a quadriplegic use his hands and arm, may not seem a lot to many, but to that person may mean the whole world. His quality of life can be radically improved just by that small step that science took.
More information on the subject and the technique can be read from the full story at: Surgeons restore hand, arm movement to quadriplegic patients by Kristina Sauerwein.
Journal article:
Ida K. Fox, Kristen M. Davidge, Christine B. Novak, Gwendolyn Hoben,
Lorna C. Kahn, Neringa Juknis, Rimma Ruvinskaya, Susan E. Mackinnon. (2015). Nerve Transfers to Restore Upper Extremity Function in Cervical Spinal Cord Injury. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 136 (4): 780-792 DOI: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000001641
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