Toronto Western Hospital's Research Ethics Board approved enrolling patients in the InVivo Therapeutics' INSPIRE study.
The study site is the first in Canada, designed for spinal cord injury treatment. Here are five things to know:
1. Michael Fehlings, MD, PhD, is principal investigator at the site. He is director of the spinal program at Toronto Western Hospital at the University Health Network.
2. The INSPIRE study involves InVivo's Neuro-Spinal Scaffold, designed for patients with acute spinal cord injury. The device is placed inside the decompressed and debrided injury epicenter to support appositional healing.
3. The Neuro-Spinal Scaffold received a Humanitarian Use Device designation and is used at several evaluation sites across the United States.
4. The technology is designed for neural regeneration across the injury. The trial is designed for complete treatment of T2-T12/L1 spinal cord injury.
5. The initial patients in the trial have reported improvement.