- A spinal electrode implant, installed via surgery, has shown promise in helping people with mobility issues from Parkinson’s disease.
- The device builds on earlier research that used spinal stimulation for people with spinal cord injuries.
- The therapy, which needs to be tailored to each individual person, helps activate regions of the spine once the brain has issued a command.
- There’s no cure for Parkinson’s disease, but emerging therapies are helping make the disease more manageable.
Researchers have released their findings into an experimental spinal neuroprosthesis device that’s designed to help people with Parkinson’s disease walk properly.
What’s more, the researchers say they have an excellent proof of concept in Marc Gauthier, a 63-year-old man with Parkinson’s who was implanted with the device.
Gauthier told Reuters that the device has changed his life.
The researchers’ findings were
More testing, research and regulatory hurdles will need to be overcome for these implants to become a widely available therapy for people with Parkinson’s disease.
However, experts say the early results are promising and researchers are hopeful that more data will lead to more breakthroughs.
“This is really a fascinating study that aims to improve a difficult symptom of Parkinson’s disease by using advanced technology,” Dr. Jean-Philippe Langevin, a neurosurgeon with Pacific Neuroscience Institute in California who was not involved in the research, told Medical News Today.“I think that these findings are really promising and open the door to a potential new strategy to treat Parkinson’s disease.”
This new…
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