A new treatment for patients paralysed or who have lost sensation as a result of damage to their spinal cord is to be tested at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin today.
The pilot scheme involves implanting an electronic device in a patient's spine which is designed to stimulate regeneration of the spinal cord and allow damaged nerves to function again.
The trial of six patients aged between 18 and 45 could help those who have lost sensation, movement and their bladder and bowel control as the result of an acute back injury.
The Traxon spinal cord repair stimulator is to be tested on patients who have recently suffered such injuries and have no voluntary movement or sensation below the injury point.
Mr Ciaran Bolger, the consultant neurosurgeon who is leading the trials, said: "We believe this therapy could provide a chance for acute patients to recover the quality of life that was lost during that brief, unfortunate moment when their spinal cord was damaged.
"Currently there is no available treatment for restoring sensory, motor, and bladder and bowel functions in traumatically injured patients."
Implantation of the device, which consists of a pair of electrodes, a pacemaker-like power pack and a hand-held, battery-operated signal monitor, must take place within six weeks of the injury.
The 90-minute operation to place the electrodes as close as possible to the injury without actually touching the cord precedes a six-month follow-up period involving physical, laboratory and X-ray examinations to assess both safety of the device and its effectiveness.
During this time, the patients will also receive the current standard medical care.
The power pack is implanted away from the electrodes in the flesh near the patient's waist.
The implanted electrodes direct a small electric field across the injured spinal cord which, two decades of studies on animals has established, can induce regeneration of so-called axons the extensions between nerve cells.
If the results of the Dublin tests are encouraging, a larger second study will be conducted at several other locations.
PA