Here are five notes:
1. Dr. Konrad plans to test whether intraspinal microstimulation technology has the ability to restore body movements.
2. He seeks two patients who are already scheduled for spinal surgery, outside of the experiment, with completely severed spinal cords between the T3 and T8 vertebrae.
3. Joseph Cheng, MD, director of the neurosurgery spine program at Vanderbilt, will head the data safety and monitoring during the study.
4. Dr. Konrad will not implant anything in the patients.
5. The U.S. Department of Defense’s $926,672 grant is funding the project.
“If you stimulate one are of the cord, you get a certain type of movement. You move it half a millimeter, you get another type of movement,” said Dr. Konrad. “If we can find that this sweet spot is lying dormant in paralyzed people, then there will be an enormous incentive to develop a device to awaken it.”
More articles on spine:
Combined fusion treatment for lower back pain — 5 key points
5 key notes on the BMP-2/cancer connection in spinal fusion
Drs. Anne Normand, Said Osman & more: 9 spine surgeons in the headlines this week
