Within Hours, Surgical Implant Lets Paralyzed Patients Walk

Multiple clinical trial participants who have severe spinal injuries were able to stand, walk, and perform specific activities after just one day of using an implant surgically embedded in their spines.

Written byDan Robitzski

| 2 min read

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Left: Two men wearing coats and hats who are standing side-by-side on a sidewalk walk towards the camera with the assistance of walkers. Right: artist’s rendering of an oval-shaped medical implant dotted with electrodes that has wires protruding from one end.

Michel Rocatti (left) and another clinical trial participant walk down the street in Lausanne with the aid of their implants; artist’s rendering of the implant.

Image credit:NEURORESTORE / JIMMY RAVIER

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When Michel Rocatti completely severed his spinal cord in a 2017 motorcycle accident, he permanently lost all sensation in and control over his legs. For years, Rocatti was unable to walk—until an experimental implant was surgically embedded into his spine, re-completing the broken biological circuit between his spinal cord and the severed nerves, The Guardian reports.

When prompted, the device sends activity-specific pulses of electricity to various nerves that were cut off from the central nervous system, allowing the Rocatti and other paralyzed people to send the appropriate stimulation and instructions to their legs. Rocatti and the other two participants in an ongoing clinical trial were able to stand, walk, use bicycle pedals, and kick their legs in a swimming pool within hours of having the flexible, multi-electrode device embedded into their spines, according to research published Monday (February 7) in Nature Medicine. The device and software, developed by researchers ...

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Two men wearing coats and hats who are standing side-by-side on a sidewalk walk towards the camera with the assistance of walkers.

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Meet the Author

Dan Robitzski
Dan is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles who joined The Scientist as a reporter and editor in 2021. Ironically, Dan’s undergraduate degree and brief career in neuroscience inspired him to write about research rather than conduct it, culminating in him earning a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University in 2017. In 2018, an Undark feature Dan and colleagues began at NYU on a questionable drug approval decision at the FDA won first place in the student category of the Association of Health Care Journalists' Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. Now, Dan writes and edits stories on all aspects of the life sciences for the online news desk, and he oversees the “The Literature” and “Modus Operandi” sections of the monthly TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. Read more of his work at danrobitzski.com.
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